Silicon Valley-based startup accelerator Y Combinator invested $125,000 in homegrown fintech startup NextPay, an all-in-one digital banking solutions provider expanding its services to financially-underserved businesses in the Philippines.
NextPay was one of just five Filipino tech start-ups which global powerhouse Y Combinator chose to fund.
Y Combinator was the launchpad of iconic startups such as Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe, Twitch and over 2,000 others.
In the Philippines, Y Combinator backed up startups Kalibrr in 2013, PayMongo in 2019 and Avion School as well as Dashlabs.ai this year.
NextPay, the third local startup it selected in 2021, puts the power of big banks in the hands of small businesses.
The platform gives growing companies access to easy and affordable financial services such as digital invoicing, cash management, and batch payments to any bank or e-wallet in the country.
Since its launch in 2020, NextPay has processed over USD $2.5 million (P120 million) in digital transactions for more than 100 businesses—and is growing fast.
Customers of NextPay enjoy reduced processing times from as much as 3 days to just 30 minutes.
“Our goal is to empower smaller businesses with a spectrum of banking services previously unavailable to them because of steep requirements and high fees aimed at larger, more developed companies that can afford them," explained NextPay Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder Don Pansacola.
"This funding round from Y Combinator allows us to scale even faster to bring digital financial services closer to MSMEs,” he added.
Through the $125,000 investment from Y Combinator, NextPay founders will leverage their previous experience working in “unicorn” companies to expand their line of digital banking services.
Their plans include new digital solutions for payments, credit, and personal cash management.
“We plan to introduce more payment acceptance methods, virtual credit cards, and other digital solutions that enable businesses to manage their cash flow and alleviate the bottlenecks of the Philippine financial landscape," according to Pansacola.
"We will also partner with human resource and accounting software companies to further streamline the financial operations of a growing company.”
“The opportunity to provide digital financial services to these market segments, which make up 99.5% of all businesses, and are the lifeblood of the Philippine economy, is huge," stressed NextPay Chief Experience Officer and Co-Founder Aldrich Tan.
Through NextPay's platform, MSMEs can conduct their transactions seamlessly and allow business owners to free up resources and focus on their operations, he elaborated.
"This optimization and focus are vital in the country’s economic recovery.”