SM Group’s Gentree Fund and Singapore-based venture capitalist Golden Gate Ventures announced their investment in homegrown financial technology startup NextPay.
NextPay raised $1.6 million (over P80 million) in seed funding from well-known international and local investors, allowing it to accelerate its goal of putting the power of big banks in the hands of small businesses.
Singapore-based venture capitalist Golden Gate Ventures and Gentree Fund led the oversubscribed seed financing round.
Among the other foreign investors that participated in the seed funding round are Tribe Capital, Broadhaven Ventures, 1982 Ventures, Saison Capital, and Razorpay, Rohit Mulani of GoTrade, and Abhinay Peddisetty and Chinmay Chauhan of BukuWarung. Goodwater Capital, which has investments in Facebook, Spotify and Twitter, also supported the funding exercise.
NextPay’s seed funding was also backed by Kickstart Ventures of the Ayala Group, Foxmont Capital and First Asia Ventures and angel investor Lisa Gokongwei of JG Summit.
Proceeds of the seed funding will be used to grow NextPay’s suite of services, expand its strong customer base and introduce new digital banking solutions to micro, small and medium enterprises.
“We believe that business banking will continue to digitally evolve, as the Philippines accelerates its digital transformation initiatives. This investment supports our goal of putting the power of big banks in the hands of small businesses,” said NextPay chief executive and co-founder Don Pansacola.
The fundraising marks a milestone for NextPay after graduating from the prestigious Y-Combinator program in April, when it received $125,000 in pre-seed investment.
NextPay is a platform that provides underserved customers democratized access to easy and affordable financial services such as digital invoicing, cash management, and batch payments to any bank or e-wallet in the Philippines.
“The success of our seed funding exercise will help us accelerate our plans of introducing more meaningful digital banking solutions, including, but not limited to, corporate cards, loans, and integrations with other platforms focused on MSMEs,” said NextPay chief experience officer and co-founder Aldrich Tan.
“We will also be hiring more talent to make the NextPay platform more comprehensive, simple, and easier to use and avail of. We aim to provide the best service and experience so that our customers can focus more on growing their businesses,” he said.
NextPay seeks to partner and collaborate with other organizations, businesses and startups for integrations and partnerships, as it expands its digital banking solutions to create a more seamless financial ecosystem for its clients.
Since its launch in 2020, NextPay has processed over $9.1 million (over P457.5 million) in digital transactions for more than 100 businesses.
