PayMongo has secured $12 million in Series A funding led by Stripe
Local online payment platform PayMongo has secured $12 million (Php 582 million) in a Series A funding round led by Stripe. The company, which offers an online payments API, was the first Filipino-owned financial tech startup to take part in Y Combinator’s accelerator program.
Both Y Combinator and Global Founders Capital, another previous investor, both returned for the Series A, which also included a new backer in the form of BedRock Capital. The biggest investor, however, was Stripe, the San Francisco-based financial services company.
In a statement to the press, PayMongo said that it plans to use the fresh capital to further accelerate the rollout of its products and features as part of an aggressive roadmap and build up its product, design and engineering teams.
Founded by Francis Plaza (CEO), Luis Sia (CPO), Jaime Hing (CTO) and Edwin Lacierda (COO), PayMongo partners with financial institutions to provide a payment API that can be integrated into websites and apps. This API allows them to accept payments from bank cards and digital wallets such as GCash and GrabPay. For online sellers, PayMongo offers PayMongo Links, which buyers can click on to send money. In addition, the company’s platform also includes security features like a fraud and risk detection system.
The company boasts that its “easy-to-integrate” API accelerates internet businesses by lowering integration time to a few lines of code. Meanwhile, PayMongo Links is said to allow businesses to take advantage of e-commerce without the need for development time.
“The Series A funding builds on an exceptional first year for PayMongo,” said Plaza. “We’re thrilled to have amazing investors to support our mission of building the digital economic infrastructure in the Philippines.”
The company claims that its transaction volume soared 15x since the start of the year. By April, one month after the government-mandated coronavirus lockdowns started, thousand of businesses, including small entrepreneurs, restaurants, have signed up for its products and services. (Read: It’s time to talk about tech and mental health in the time of COVID-19)
“We’ve been impressed with the PayMongo team and the speed at which they’ve made digital payments more accessible for so many businesses across the Philippines,” Strike’s APAC business lead Noah Pepper said in a statement. “We fully support their vision to bring many more Filipino businesses online. Given the disruption caused by COVID-19, a service like theirs is simply vital for the country’s businesses and economic future.”
“PayMongo is enabling businesses to meet rapidly-growing online demand with intuitive, easy-to-use products,” said Spencer Peterson, Principal at New York-based Bedrock Capital.
“We’re impressed by the pace at which this team executes and thrilled to support their vision for the future of digital payments and commerce.”
Philippine digital transactions surged in value by 42 percent between the months of January and April 2020—growth largely driven by the necessary shift to online purchases due to the ongoing lockdowns. The segment is now expected to hit the targets set for it by the central bank.
In addition to Y Combinator, Bedrock Capital and Stripe, other investors in PayMongo include Founders Fund, the San Francisco-based venture capital firm founded by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel that supports innovative technologies of many start-ups across the world; Global Founders Capital, the Berlin-based seed and growth venture capital firm and a number of other angel investors.
