PLDT Inc. technology unit Voyager Innovation Inc. yesterday secured $120 million in new funding from its four shareholders: KKR, a global investment firm, Tencent, IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and the IFC Emerging Asia Fund to help finance its expansion.
In a statement, PLDT announced the signing of agreements under which PLDT, KKR, Tencent, IFC and IFC Emerging Asia Fund commit up to $120 million in new funding towards the expansion efforts of Voyager.
This follows KKR’s, Tencent’s, IFC’s and IFC Emerging Asia Fund’s initial investments totaling $215 million made to Voyager in 2018.
These fundings underscore the investors’ support of Voyager and its strategy to provide greater access to digital financial services across the Philippines through its financial technology arm, PayMaya Philippines (PayMaya), PLDT said.
The fresh funding also comes as government, businesses and consumers are turning to cashless transactions and digital finance.
This $120 million investment is part of a broader fundraise for Voyager and is intended to support PayMaya’s rapid growth as it pursues its mission to accelerate digital and financial inclusion in the Philippines and enable the wider Filipino population to participate in the digital economy.
PLDT is also in talks with other strategic and financial investors.
Voyager’s PayMaya is the only end-to-end digital payments ecosystem enabler in the Philippines with platforms and services that cut across consumers, merchants, and government. Aside from providing the payments acceptance for the largest e-commerce, food, retail and gas merchants in the Philippines, PayMaya is enabling national and social services agencies as well as local government units with digital payments and disbursement services.
