Philippines-based digital payments startup Ayannah to secure US$5 million by April 2017

Ayannah, a digital payments startup based in the Philipines, is looking forward to securing at least US$5 million in its next financing round which is said to be completed by April 2017.

“We are in the middle of raising our next round. It was upsized to US$5 million because of a surge in investor interest. We aim to close by April 2017,” said Ayannah’s Founder and CEO Mikko Perez.

Founded in 2008, the financial technology firm provides digital commerce and payment services to migrants and overseas workers, especially those which are unbanked or underbanked via the operations of two main platforms – Sendah and Sendah Direct.

Sendah is a B2C platform that allows overseas Filipinos to send mobile top-ups, electronic vouchers as well as physical goods. While Sendah Direct is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform that partners with brick-and-mortar retailers to offer services like mobile top-ups, online game credits, and domestic remittance.

“We are not trying to eliminate money transfers or remittances but we are giving migrants more options on how to support their beneficiaries in their home countries without necessarily infringing on the value proposition of money transfer operators,” Perez said.

In December 2015, Ayannah has raised US$1 million as part of its series A round led by Silicon Valley VC 500 Startups and Singapore-based fintech VC Life.SREDA, London-based fintech VC Blue Compass, and other investors.

The company also claims that its remittance business took off in the second half of 2016 where its revenue volume grew by 202x from July 2014 to December 2016.

Ayannah will use the newly raised capital to further grow its remittance business and launch their microinsurance and credit scoring business, as it plans to go for a public listing by late 2018.

“Our challenge,” said Perez, “is hiring more developers and channel sales people to ramp up product development and revenues. We are integrating with several partners all at the same time and we need to hire more energies just to work through the pipeline.”

“But I do think 2017 is the breakout year for Ayannah,” Perez adds. “We have prepared the foundation over the past three years and we are poised for the period of sustained growth.”

By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media

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