NextPay, a homegrown financial technology startup backed by the Sy family and the Ayala Group, expects its growth momentum to continue in 2022 after surpassing the P1-billion mark in total transaction volume last year.
“The year 2021 was a banner year for NextPay. From being part of the prestigious Y Combinator Program and successfully closing an oversubscribed seed funding round, we were able to successfully grow our base and reach the P1-billion mark in total transaction volume,” said Don Pansacola, NextPay chief executive and co-founder.
“We expect to persist on a growth path this 2022, as we continue to introduce more innovative financial services that empower growing businesses with big banking solutions,” he added.
Invoice payments, employee salaries and vendor payments were the main drivers for this milestone, backed by a customer base that has grown by roughly 20 times over the last 12 months.
NextPay’s customers include small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and growing businesses in a wide spectrum of industries, including consumer goods, technology, healthcare, investment management, automotive, e-commerce and agriculture.
NextPay last year raised $1.9 million, or twice as much as its target of $1 million in total investments for 2021.
The amount includes the pre-seed backing of Silicon Valley-based startup accelerator Y Combinator and the seed funding round that was led by Singapore-based venture capitalist Golden Gate Ventures and Gentree Fund, a private investment vehicle of the Sy family, which owns Filipino conglomerate SM Group.
NextPay, launched in 2020 amid the pandemic, empowers growing companies, entrepreneurs and freelancers with a spectrum of digital financial services that were previously unavailable to them because of the steep requirements and high fees typically aimed at larger, more developed companies that can afford them.
NextPay is a platform that provides underserved customers democratized access to easy and affordable financial services, such as digital invoicing, cash management, and batch payments to any bank or e-wallet in the Philippines.
NextPay has also rolled out several improvements on the platform to make managing a business easier and streamlined for its customers.
“As we continue to evolve as a fintech startup that addresses the needs of growing businesses, we reaffirm our commitment to further improving our platform through innovation. We aim to introduce more flexible disbursement options, as well as explore high-growth areas of trade financing, corporate cards, and cryptocurrency services,” said NextPay co-founder Aldrich Tan.
To do this, NextPay plans to launch fundraising activities within the first half of 2022.
“We are optimistic about the opportunities for the year 2022. As we start the next round of fundraising this year, we remain committed to providing big banking services to small businesses. We will continue to innovate this year and introduce more digital financial services to serve the ever-evolving needs of our customers,” said Pansacola.