Homegrown fintech startup NextPay, which was launched in the middle of the 2020 pandemic, posted more than P1 billion in total transactions in 2021 and expects to continue its growth momentum this year.
“The year 2021 was a banner year for NextPay. From being part of the Y Combinator Program and closing an oversubscribed seed funding round, we reached the P1-billion mark in total transaction volume," confirmed Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder Don Pansacola.
"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 elaborated.
Invoice payments, employee salaries, and vendor payments drove the growth of NextPay's digital financial platform.
Customer base also increased twenty fold over the last 12 months.
NextPay’s customers include small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as well as growing businesses in a wide spectrum of industries, from consumer goods, technology, healthcare, investment management, automotive, e-commerce, to agriculture.
Last year, NextPay raised a total of $1.9 million, twice as much as its target of raising $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 led by Singapore-based venture capitalist Golden Gate Ventures and Gentree Fund, a private investment vehicle of the Sy Family, owners of the SM Group.
NextPay focuses on empowing growing companies, entrepreneurs, and freelancers with digital financial services previously unavailable to them because of steep requirements and high fees meant for larger, more developed companies.
The NextPay platform provides underserved customers access to digital invoicing, cash management and batch payments to any bank or e-wallet in the Philippines.
Last year, it introduced services like Reusable Payment Links allowing businesses to collect customer payments by clicking on a link to a preferred payment method.
The fintech also uses payment Links for the donation drive for Typhoon Odette last year.
To date, NextPay and its partner organizations raised P1.43 million donations for the victims of the typhoon.
Aside from Payment Links, NextPay also introduced online-to-offline (O2O) disbursements via remittance centers.
In addition, it has rolled out several improvements on the platform to streamline business management for customers.
“As we continue to evolve as a fintech startup, we are improving our platform through innovation, introducing more flexible disbursement options, exploring high-growth areas of trade financing, corporate cards, and cryptocurrency services,” pledged NextPay Chief Experience Officer and Co-Founder Aldrich Tan.
Hence, NextPay plans to launch fundraising activities within the first half of 2022.
“We are optimistic about the opportunities for 2022. As we start the next round of fundraising this year, we remain committed to providing big banking services to small businesses," Pansacola concluded.