Barely a year since it achieved unicorn status, digital financial solutions company Mynt has secured additional funding from global institutional investors to bring its valuation to “over $2 billion.”
In a stock exchange filing, Globe Telecom Inc. said Mynt, which is behind financial technology (fintech) app GCash, has raised over $300 million in new funding.
The funding round was led by Warburg Pincus, Insight Partners, and Bow Wave Capital. Itai Tsiddon and Amplo Ventures also joined the said fundraising. Globe and parent Ayala Corp. also infused additional capital.
“This is further proof that our growth and achievements have not gone unnoticed. We have been able to continuously expand by introducing game-changing innovations while improving our profitability profile,” Mynt President Martha Sazon said.
Each investor, she said, will bring in “strategic value” to Mynt.
“Their investment in Mynt and GCash further validates the strides the company has made in providing access to innovative financial services to more Filipinos and highlighting the Philippines to the global investor audience,” Globe President Ernest Cu said.
For his part, Warburg Pincus managing director Saurabh Agarwal said this investment reflects the group’s “strong belief in the long-term prospects of the Philippines as one of the fastest growing digital economies in the region.”
“Mynt has a dominant market position in the Philippines and is well-positioned with its best-in-class management team, innovative technology, and superior product offerings,” he said.
Deven Parekh, a managing director at Insight Partners said the group invested in Mynt due to its “compelling product” GCash.
“Our investment in Mynt fits within our global thesis of increasing financial inclusion using digital tools. We look forward to partnering with Mynt as they continue to grow on their scale up journey,” he said.
It was only in January that Mynt gained the unicorn status, after more than a decade of operating various digital financial services and offering various financial tools.
GCash houses its main offers, including credit, savings, insurance, loans, and investments. It now has 48 million users and is on track to reach P3 trillion in gross transaction value this year.
In January, the company raised some $175 million in capital from ASP Philippines LP, a limited partnership fund managed by investment firm Bow Wave Capital Management.
The said fund will be infused in multiple tranches, with postmoney valuation of the final tranches at close to $1 billion.
Bow Wave is a close-ended private equity fund with a mandate to invest globally in online and mobile payment ecosystem companies. Bow Wave’s investment in Mynt, its first in the Philippines, will translate to a minority equity interest in Mynt.
GCash recorded a gross transaction value of over P1 trillion in 2020, spurred by services like online payments, bank cash-in and sending money.
In September, GCash reported that its savings product GSave has almost doubled its assets under management (AUM) to P9 billion from P5 billion “in just six months.”
GInvest, the investment product of GCash, was able to “capture 70 percent of the domestic market of total Unit Investment Trust Fund accounts” in just six months.
GInsure, the micro insurance service of GCash, now “accounts for a third of all new insurance policies issued in the Philippines.”
Also, GCredit, the company’s in-house lending service, now disburses an average of P1 billion worth of credit per month. As of end-June it has disbursed a total of P15 billion worth of credit to users.