Filipino payments platform PayMongo secures $2.7 million in seed funding

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino financial technology (FinTech) company PayMongo, which aims to simplify payments for modern businesses by providing easier ways for merchants to get payments online, announced on Tuesday, September 24, it had secured a seed round investment of $2.7 million from Silicon Valley investors.

These investors included Founders Fund, Stripe, and Paypal cofounder Peter Thiel. Y Combinator, Global Founders Capital, Soma Capital, Tinder Co-Founder Justin Mateen and other angel investors locally and abroad also participated.

PayMongo claims the seed funding round was “record-breaking in terms of the amount raised for any startup in the Philippines.” The funding will be used to grow the PayMongo team, speed up product development, and enhance its ability to team up with businesses and find partnerships.

Other notable Philippine seed funding successes include insurance technology company Saphron and MariaHealth, which both got seed funds of $1 million.

The company was founded in March by MIT engineer Francis Plaza, software engineer Jamie Hing II, business entrepreneur Luis Sia, and former Philippine Cabinet official Edwin Lacierda. It launched in mid-June, building a network of over 1,000 businesses with its platform for receiving online payments growing at an average of 117% week over week.

“Building a modern payments infrastructure provides a backbone for new and existing players to thrive in the rapidly evolving digital economy. We’re building the highway that other founders and companies like us can use so that they can focus on building great products and scale massively,” said Plaza, PayMongo’s CEO, regarding the platform’s development. – Rappler.com