Mynt is lone PHL startup in SEA 35 Unicorns list

Mynt, the holding company of Globe’s fintech arm managing the popular e-wallet GCash, is the lone Philippine startup that made it to Credit Suisse’s Southeast Asia 35 Unicorns list. The list highlights technology companies in several industries and countries in the sub-region that are valued at over US$1 billion or wherein the last funding round was at least US$800 million and backed by strong business momentum.

The latest ASEAN Equity Research entitled ASEAN Unicorns, Scaling New Heights looks at the top startup companies in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Companies in Singapore and Indonesia comprise 74% of the 35 unicorns. Sector-wise, fintech leads the pack, with 26%, followed by e-commerce – 20%, logistics -11%, and diversified internet – 8%.

In a primarily cash-driven society like the Philippines, Mynt is the first mover in the country in enabling financial access for consumers and merchants. Its services include payments, remittances, loans, business solutions, and platforms.

Over the past year and a half, the pandemic became a catalyst in the acceleration of digital payments and e-commerce in the country, with merchants and consumers shifting from offline to online transactions during the year. This shift is expected to sustain even after the crisis as people get used to convenience and ease of use.

With the fintech sector in SEA attracting significant investor interest, Mynt attracted fresh capital investment in the middle of 2020 from ASP Philippines LP, a limited partnership fund managed by Bow Wave Capital Management. Mynt raised over $175 million in fresh capital from both Bow Wave and its existing shareholders, across multiple tranches, with a post-money valuation of the final tranches at close to $1 billion.

Since then, GCash has sustained its remarkable growth, with its target gross transaction value seen to triple to over P3 trillion this year from over P1 trillion in 2020. Registered users continued to increase, with over 44 million registered users and more than 2.5 million merchants and social sellers as of end-June. Moreover, active users continued to increase, growing 2.8x as against the same period the year before. Lastly, Mynt has shown the ability to scale sustainably, registering positive EBITDA and net income in June this year.

“Wallet sizes are increasing, credit traffic flow is accelerating, and use cases are widening, and Mynt has been able to capitalize on these trends with the transformation of its GCash service to a super app that includes e-commerce (GLife) and financial services (lending, insurance, savings, and investments),” the research said.

Aside from GCash, Mynt also has its lending arm, FUSE, another subsidiary that benefits the unbanked population through innovative credit products powered by its proprietary credit scoring algorithm.

To know more about Mynt, visit https://www.mynt.xyz.

Spotlight is BusinessWorld’s sponsored section that allows advertisers to amplify their brand and connect with BusinessWorld’s audience by enabling them to publish their stories directly on the BusinessWorld Web site. For more information, send an email to online@bworldonline.com.