Filipino fintech firm Mynt (Globe Telecom) is now worth $2B – almost 2x its original value – after successfully raising over 300 million dollars in funding, as reported on the TechInAsia blog in 2021.
Key Takes:
- Mynt, a subsidiary of Globe Telecom, raised over $300 million in funding, leading to a valuation of $2 billion, achieving double unicorn statues (Mynt Filipino Globe Telecom Techasia).
- GCash (Mynt’s e-wallet) registered a transaction volume of 1 trillion pesos ($20.8B) in 2020
- The company faces competition from Tencent-backed PayMaya, also a Filipino unicorn
- Mynt has raised over $475 million in 2 funding rounds
In the Filipino fintech market, there is huge potential for growth. Mynt (Mynt Filipino Globe Telecom Techasia), a fintech arm of Globe (a telecom firm), saw this potential and made itself one of the most successful applications in the Philippines. Its recent success may be due to the latest funding for $300 million from a funding round led by Insight Partners and Warburg Pictures. (as per Mynt Filipino Globe telecom TechAsia)
Another reason why Mynt is now becoming mainstream in the Philippines is that the company registered a gross transaction volume of US$ 20.8 billion (1 trillion pesos) in 2020 (Mynt Filipino Globe Telecom Techasia). Their e-wallet GCash is also the reason behind their undying success in Filipino fintech. GCash is a multipurpose online wallet having features such as investing, transactions, mutual and market funds, etc.
“We are encouraged by the fact that Mynt’s momentum has continued, even as the country moved out of quarantine restrictions, suggesting a fundamental shift in our customers’ behavior toward a cashless lifestyle,” stated Ernest Cu, board of chairman, Mynt.
Covid-19 also give severe popularity to GCash in the Filipino fintech market as people were inclined towards doing cashless transactions, for obvious reasons.
Other than basic fintech features, over 33 million Filipinos are now provided with insurance facilities as well. This has been made possible thanks to Mynt’s partnership with CIMB Bank, headquartered in Malaysia.
At the time of the $300M funding round, as reported by TechInAsia, Mynt predicted that their transaction volume would reach 3 trillion pesos, and they were right; Mynt reported a whopping 3.8 Trillion Pesos transaction volume on GCash in 2021 alone.
“We are confident of furthering Mynt’s market leadership and creating positive and transformative disruption in the Philippine financial services sector,” Cu added.
Mynt and Its Competition
As good as Mynt would be, it is still facing huge competition from Tencent-backed PayMaya, a digital banking license holder in the Philippines. To fully compete with Mynt, PayMaya also started offering ensuring services to the Filipinos and gave tough competition to Mynt.
Do remember that Mynt and Voyager (owner of PayMaya e-wallet) both achieved unicorn status in the Philippines, while Mynt targeted double unicorn status in the Filipino market in 2021. As they received the $300 million funding, the company was valued at $2 billion (Mynt Filipino Globe Telecom Techasia), successfully beating PayMaya and achieving a double unicorn status.(Mynt Filipino Globe Telecom TechAsia)
Deven Parekh, Managing Director at GCash, says that their e-wallet [GCash] has “created the most compelling product to reach the massively underserved market in the Philippines.”
According to Crunchbase, Mynt has raised over $475 million to date, in 2 funding rounds. Three of the leading investors behind this fintech firm are Warburg Pincus, Insight Partners, and Bow Wave Capital Management.
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