GLOBE TELECOM, Inc. is strengthening its push for non-telecommunications related services, as it rebrands Globe Capital Ventures Holdings, Inc. (GCVH) as 917 Ventures.
“Today, we are renaming GCVH from a branding perspective, not from a corporate vehicle perspective, to 917 Ventures. The task is to add more pilots that may fit the new business profile that we want to embark in the future, similar to Mynt or Adspark (Inc.), that are already under GCVH,” Globe Chief Finance Officer Rizza D. Maniego-Eala said in a briefing in Taguig City.
Globe Fintech Innovations, Inc. (Mynt) and G-Xchange, Inc. (GCash) are under 917 Ventures.
Globe did not disclose details on the additional capital infusion into 917 Ventures.
“Obviously it will be smaller initially, but the intent is to find a couple more Mynts or GCashes, hopefully serve at a faster pace versus how we incubated GCash,” Ms. Maniego-Eala added.
Globe said the renewed thrust of GCVH as 917 Ventures is expected to “play a critical role in the company’s future growth.” The wholly owned subsidiary will hold all of the company’s incubated products that are not related to telco services.
“Anything that doesn’t belong to the core (business of Globe) that we believe can scale into its own business will fall under 917 Ventures. That will be the basic difference,” Globe President Ernest L. Cu said at the briefing.
917 Ventures will be led by Globe Senior Vice-President for Consumer Mobile Business Issa Guevarra-Cabreira.
In the second quarter, Globe reported flat earnings with an attributable net income of P5.32 billion from P5.29 billion a year ago on increased spending for infrastructure buildout.
It is allocating P63 billion for capital spending this year, P19 billion of which have already been spent in the first half of the year. — Denise A. Valdez
