The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, has committed to pick up a minority stake in Philippine tech company Voyager Innovations for $40 million, Voyager’s parent company PLDT Inc announced Monday. The investment will be made by IFC and IFC Emerging Asia Fund, a fund managed by IFC Asset Management Company, to help further expand financial inclusion in the Philippines and promote the digital economy through the use of digital payments, PLDT said. IFC’s investment brings Voyager’s total funds raised to $215 million and followed the $175-million investments from a group led by buyout major KKR and China’s Tencent Holdings. The combined investment continues to make this fundraising the largest investment to date in a Philippine technology company. “With the global expertise and fresh capital from the new investors, Voyager Innovations will enable greater access to mobile payments and the internet as a whole for the country’s population,” PLDT earlier said. Founded in 2013, Voyager Innovations offers mobile money and payments (under the PayMaya brand), mobile-based remittances (Smart Padala), digital lending (Lendr) and solutions for businesses to receive online and card payments anytime, anywhere (PayMaya Business). “Through its Global Innovative Retail Payments Program, IFC aims to make financial services much more accessible and affordable to the world’s low-income population by supporting innovative financial services. That is precisely the goal that PLDT is pursuing through Voyager’s platforms,” said Manuel V. Pangilinan, Chairman, and CEO of PLDT and Smart Communications. Voyager’s other services include PayMaya Business solutions that enable businesses to accept card payments for online or face-to-face purchases; TackThis! that allows merchants to easily set up an online shop; online marketplace Takatack; and data sponsored platform and customer engagement tool freenet. “Our mission is to accelerate digital and financial inclusion in the Philippines, so all Filipinos can participate in the digital economy. IFC and IFC Emerging Asia Fund’s investment will enable us to scale up our efforts especially in the digital financial services space,” said Voyager president and CEO Orlando B. Vea. According to a report released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the country’s central bank, there are more people with mobile phones than bank accounts in the Philippines. The BSP said it is setting its sights on technology as catalyst and strategic enable for financial inclusion in the Philippines. “The future of the financial system lies in going digital and using it to achieve financial inclusion. We are too fragmented geographically to reach out using traditional means. Digital technology provides such a chance,” BSP Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. said in the report.
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