Manzi Xue, one of the best angel investors in China, was once the founder of a well-known listed enterprise and also an investor of more well-known enterprises. He was a well-known Chinese investor on Wall Street more than 10 years ago. His decades of successful business operation and investment experience allowed him to be recognized as a senior in the industry.
As a famous official and scholar, Mr. Xue became a businessman and investor who brought vitality to China’s angel investment and influenced entrepreneurs of an era. In 2018, he chose to join forces with Jeff Wang, founder and CEO of Huaren Capital, to enter the Southeast Asian market. After thorough and detailed market research, he targeted the Philippines.
“Although the current entrepreneurial environment in the Philippines is not ideal, it still has great potential. In the first eight months of 2018, Southeast Asian start-ups received a record $3.16 billion in venture capital funding. The Philippines, however, is a different story. According to public data, only a small amount of money has gone to startups in the Philippines this year. Start-ups in the Philippines have received less than $50M in venture capital funding this year. For the whole of 2018, there were only seven financing cases in the Philippines, down from 10 last year and 21 in 2016,” said Mr. Xue.
The Philippines was one of the first countries in the world to launch a mobile payment service, but has made little progress in making mobile payments mainstream. For now, the Philippines remains highly dependent on cash transactions. To get Filipinos use e-payment services, they need to be given a compelling reason to feel comfortable keeping their money in e-wallets.
“Although cash is still widely used in the Philippines, cash on delivery is very popular in the Philippines, with 80% of online merchants supporting it,” Mr Xue said. That’s mainly because nearly 98% of Filipinos still don’t have credit cards. But in the near future, digital payment will be the only way for the development of e-commerce. This determines that the DPAY project of Huaren Capital is imperative, and will eventually overturn the shackle of traditional industries, so as to realize barrierless consumption, deposit and withdrawal, and financial management.
Mr. Wang said, “The Philippines aims to maintain the annual compound growth rate of 6-7% GDP growth, thanks to the young people of social main body, the demographic dividend, and high frequency low consumption habits, credit card and bank account penetration, and comprehensive factors such as smartphone growth prospects, mobile payment has a bright future in the Philippines, just like in China and India. It is suitable for first-tier cities and CBD to drive users in remote areas.”
Now with mobile payment, people’s income and expenditure become traceable, verifiable and credible, and this credit can be expanded to the whole capital market so that everyone can join in the game. Therefore, mobile payment is the data-based cornerstone of many industries’ credit. It is precisely because of the dividend brought by mobile payment that many industries can also be capitalized, which is conducive to listing. This is the mission of DPAY in the future.
Mr. Xue said, “Success is accidental, failure is inevitable. If you don’t try, don’t say you succeeded, even failed. Success or failure, if it can change the world a little, is also great.”
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