UPDATE 1-Fintech Voyager raises $210 mln to become 2nd Philippine ‘unicorn’

Adds company comments, detail

By Neil Jerome Morales

MANILA, April 12 (Reuters) – Philippine technology startup Voyager Innovations said on Tuesday it has raised $210 million in its latest funding round, making the company the country’s second “unicorn” with a valuation of more than $1 billion.

Voyager, which serves 47 million people through its consumer platforms that include e-wallet and digital payments, said the fresh capital will fund its digital banking venture and other services like cryptocurrency and micro-investments.

SIG Venture Capital, the Asian venture capital arm of SIG, Singapore-based global investor EDBI, and investment holding company First Pacific Company Ltd 0142.HK, participated in the funding round as new investors, Voyager said.

Voyager’s existing shareholders like PLDT TEL.PS, private equity firm KKR & Co Inc KKR.N, China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd 0700.HK and International Finance Corp (IFC) also joined the capital injection.

The latest funding increased the valuation of Voyager to $1.4 billion, it said. In June, Voyager raised $167 million for its expansion programme, bringing in a unit of the World Bank Group’s IFC as a new investor. nL2N2OA06F

Voyager’s rival, Mynt, is the only other Philippine unicorn, or startups that have reached at least $1 billion in valuation. Mynt is partly owned by Globe Telecom GLO.PS, Bow Wave and Ant Financial, the financial technology arm of Alibaba 9988.HK.

The Philippines is among the fastest-growing fintech markets in Southeast Asia, with adoption of digital services surging during the pandemic. Its internet economy grew 93% to $17 billion in 2021, and is expected to expand to $40 billion by 2025, according to a report by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Co.

(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales
Editing by Ed Davies)

((neiljerome.morales@thomsonreuters.com; +632 8841 8914;))