Manila-based payment processing startup PayMongo, which allows micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to process various card-based and digital payments, announced on Monday that it has raised USD 12 million in a Series A round led by US-based payment processing firm Stripe.
The Series A round, backed by Y Combinator, Global Founders Capital, and Bedrock Capital, has brought the company’s total funding to USD 15 million. Founded in 2019, PayMongo’s payment platform helps merchants process digital payments made with credit cards, debit cards, and e-wallets.
“This Series A capital will allow us to invest in product and engineering and fuel the progress of our already aggressive product roadmap,” Francis Plaza, PayMongo CEO and co-founder told KrASIA. “Our priorities include: Supporting more online payment options, supporting other online business models like subscription, invoicing, and marketplace, faster payout cycles, building more partnerships with other financial service providers, and much improved fraud and risk systems, among other things we have planned.”
Plaza added that the firm also plans to secure additional licenses from the Central Bank of the Philippines to offer other financial products.
When the Philippines government imposed a nationwide lockdown in March, the firm told local commercial television ABS-CBN that it had witnessed transactions grow fourfold during the COVID-19 lockdown period, as businesses sought to adopt digital solutions to serve customers. The firm also saw a 201% compound growth in its monthly sign-ups from February to May this year, with transactions growing by 50% in the same period.
“As unfortunate as COVID-19 has been to our country, it was the inflection point that forced brick-and-mortar stores, as well as small and medium enterprises, to migrate online,” Plaza said. “With the Philippines having one of the most severe lockdowns in the world, these businesses were forced to find an avenue to continue operating, and for any business, whether online or offline, payments are a foundational requirement.”
The funding announcement has come almost one year since the firm notched a USD 2.7 million from several Silicon Valley investors, including PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, Stripe, Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen, and other angel investors. In January, PayMongo collaborated with GCash, the biggest e-wallet in the country with 20 million users and over 50,000 merchants, to expand digital payment options to MSMEs.