Category: Funding Rounds
Philippine fintech Mynt raises $300m, hitting “double-unicorn” status
The Philippines-based payments app, Mynt, has become the first tech unicorn in the country after raising over $300 million in a funding round that valued the company at over $2 billion.
It is the fintech arm of Globe Telecom and the operator of the popular mobile wallet GCash. It announced that the funding round was co-anchored by global investment giant Warburg Pincus and private equity and venture capital investor Insight Partners.
Other investors that participated in the funding round include existing investors Globe Telecom, Ayalo Corp, and Bow Wave Capital. It also includes angel investor Itai Tsiddon and VC firm Amplo Ventures.
“This is further proof that our growth and achievements have not gone unnoticed,” said Martha Sazon, President and CEO of Mynt.
Founded in 2004, Mynt was 45% owned by Ant Group and Globe Telecom each, while Ayala Corp held the remaining 10% prior to the latest funding round.
Mynt offers many financial services, including credit, savings, insurance, loans, and investments. The assets under management of its GSave product have grown to over P9 billion ($178 million), from P5 billion in 2020.
GCash recorded a gross transaction value of over 1 trillion pesos ($20 billion) last year, spurred by services like online payments, bank cash-in, and money remittance.
Mynt closed a $175 million funding round that valued the company at nearly $1 billion from Bow Wave and existing investors in January. It claimed to have served over 48 million people. The current number of its merchants and social sellers stands at 3 million.
The company also recorded peak daily app log-ins of 19 million and daily active transactions of 12 million.
“We believe that GCash has created the most compelling product to reach the massively underserved market in the Phillippines,” said Deven Parekh, Managing Director at Insight Partners.
Ernest Cu. chairman of the board at Mynt and president and CEO of Globe, said the investment from Warburg Pincus, Insight Partners, and the other investors “further validates the strides” that Mynt has made in providing access to financial services to more Filipinos.
“Together with the continued support of Mynt’s existing shareholders, we are confident of furthering Mynt’s market leadership and creating positive and transformative disruption in the Philippine financial services sector,” he added.
The company has also announced they will be launching “Buy Now, Pay Later” products within the year.
“The investment into Mynt marks our continued commitment and strong belief in the long-term prospects of the Philippines as one of the fastest-growing digital economies in the region,” said Saurabh Agarwal, managing director of Warburg Pincus.
About 70% of the country’s adult population is either unbanked or underbanked with very low penetration of financial products, Agarwal noted. That being said, the country’s economy is growing at 2-3 times the rates of developed markets. As the demand for financial services continues to grow, Agarwal expects much of it to be served digitally.
Carousell Achieved Unicorn Status, With a Valuation of US$1.1B Thanks to a US$100M Investment From Korea’s STIC Investments
Carousell Group, a Singapore-based classifieds startup with operations in nine countries throughout Asia and Canada, revealed yesterday that it had secured US$100 million (RM415 million) to accelerate expansion.
The media announcement made no mention of a listing. However, media sources from June have connected it to a prospective US listing via SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company).
Quek Siu Rui, co-founder, and CEO of Carousell, mentioned that the pandemic has proven its mission to inspire the world to start selling, and buying secondhand is more relevant than ever.
People are utilizing our platforms to make it more feasible for one another, whether via shared interests, making ends meet, affording what they require, or just because it is more sustainable.
They believed that the increased adoption of digital experiences is an opportunity for them to double down on their recommerce efforts, focusing on convenience and trust to unleash step-change growth in their community.
The investment by STIC validates their goal and strategic direction. Also, they envision increasing their investments in recommerce across new categories and markets, and they will continue to look for opportunistic acquisitions to help them scale up.
Jason Cho, Managing Director of STIC Investments, stated they have been keeping an eye on Carousell and are thrilled to be partnering with a significant share in its development narrative.
Carousell continues to see tremendous user growth as it transforms the recommerce industry by introducing new features to build trusted marketplaces and improve the overall user experience.
The team and he are convinced that Carousell will be at the heart of the secondhand economy in this region at a time when a growing number of socioeconomic and environmentally concerned customers are turning toward a circular economy.
Besides that, Cho will join the Carousell Board as part of the financing round.
Since its founding in 2012, the Group has served tens of millions of consumers in eight Southeast Asian and Taiwan markets through the brands Carousell, Mudah.my (in Malaysia), Cho Tot (Vietnam), and OneKyat (Myanmar).
The last three locations were formerly held by Telenor Group, a Norwegian telecom, before the two companies merged in late 2019.
Licious Joins The India’s Unicorn Club With $52M Funding
In a round led by IIFL AMC’s late-stage tech fund, Licious, an India-based direct-to-consumer (D2C) startup that offers premium meat and seafood, raised $52 million at a valuation of $1 billion.
Thus, Licious, which Singapore state investor Temasek backs, has become India’s 29th unicorn this year.
The startup will use the new funds to expand its manufacturing and processing capacities, enhance its tech backbone, and scale up the brand.
Licious was founded in 2015 to disrupt India’s $40 billion unorganized meat and seafood sector.
The pandemic has generated tailwinds for the business, which currently distributes 2 million orders each month – a 5x increase from last year’s March.
“Our annual revenue run rate has increased from US$37.5 million before the pandemic to over US$135 million now,” said Abhay Hanjura, co-founder of Licious.
He also stated that the company has no plans to enter new markets such as grocery or dairy. “The goal is to develop a solid product rather than a delivery company,” he explained.
Licious has also increased its focus on ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat segments, accounting for approximately 20% of total sales.
Licious intends to go public within the next three years, but only after demonstrating consistent profitability, according to Hanjura. The company expects to be profitable within the next 15 to 18 months.
While the pandemic has put a hold on the company’s aspirations to expand internationally, it is considering entering Southeast Asian and West Asian markets by 2022.
Temasek and Multiples led a round of funding for Licious in July, raising US$192 million. Lucious is one of the country’s first direct-to-consumer (D2C) unicorns.
India: Cars24, A Used Car Marketplace, raises $450m at $1.84b Valuation
Cars24 is an e-commerce platform for pre-owned vehicles. It recently announced that it has closed a funding round of $450 million, including a $340 million Series F equity round alongside a $110 million debt from diversified financial institutions.
With the latest investment, the company that is headquartered in Gurugram has seen its valuation shoot up to $1.84 billion.
The Series F equity round was led by DST Global, Falcon Edge and Softbank Vision Fund 2. There was also participation from Tencent and other investors like Moore Strategic Ventures and Exor Seeds.
A statement from the company says: “With this latest investment, Cars24 will expand its global presence as well as further build its cars, bikes and financing business in India, while continuing to invest in technology that delivers the best customer experience possible.”
“Traditionally, car selling or buying has been a tiresome process, and only 2 of 100 people own cars in india. However, over the last six years, we have been working continuously toward fulfilling the dreams of many Indians to own car by transforming the customer’s journey- ‘the Cars24 way’ that is hassle-free, safe and transparent. With this investment, we will continue to penetrate into existing car, bikes and financing business in India while venturing into new overseas geographies this year,” said Vikram Chopra, Co-founder & CEO of Cars24.
This latest investment comes just months after Cars24’s expansion into the UAE and Australian markets. The company claimed to have already sold over 1000 cars in the UAE since the launch of its operations in April this year.
The company was foundED in 2015 with the aim of streamlining the buying and selling process of pre-owned cars by leveraging cutting-edge technology. It operates in over 130 cities in India. The company claims to have a 90% market share in the online used car segment, and has clocked more than 13 million monthly traffic and over 4 lakh transactions to date.
Cars24 entered the unicorn club late last year after it raised $200 million in its Series R round at a valuation of over $1 billion. The round was led by DST Global with participation from existing investors including Exor Seeds, Unbound and Moore Strategic Ventures.
Cars24’s competitors include Droom, CarTrade and CarDekho.
Airwallex, Unicorn From Fintech Hits Valuation Of $4bn After Raising $200m
One of the worldwide unicorn payment companies in Hong Kong, Airwallex, has reported a $200 million raise in a round of financing underwritten Series E headed by Lone Pine Capital of the United States.
According to the company, the new fundraising round boosted the business’s total funds raised to more than $700 million, bringing its valuation to $4 billion. In its Series D financing round concluded in March, Airwallex raised $300 million.
As new investors, G Squared and Vetamen Capital came together, while the fundraising round was attended by previous investors such as 1835i Ventures, DST Global, Salesforce Venture, and Sequoia Capital China. The company is offering a worldwide Fintech payment platform that enables companies to handle international payments, treasury, and international expenses outside the restrictions of the conventional banking system.
Airwallex employs approximately 1,000 people in 20 worldwide offices and aims to perform hundreds of vacant positions. Furthermore, Airwallex said the additional investment would assist its worldwide growth and improve its product development activities across five engineering hubs.
Airwallex’s co-founder and CEO Zhang also claimed that additional financing would help the firm expand its footprint in North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, and other new areas like Middle East, South America, and Southeast Asia.
Airwallex also received a money services company license from Malaysia’s central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia, in the Series E investment round. From early 2022, the permit will empower the fintech startup to provide Malaysian companies of all sizes with international payment solutions. The new license also signals the debut of Airwallex into Southeast Asia, which is part of the expansion schemes of the firm.
In the first half of 2021, this business records an annual sales increase of 150% and has handled over $20 billion for a four-fold worldwide customer portfolio.