Voyager Innovations Raises $210 Million to Drive Crypto Innovation in the Philippines’ Digital Economy

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Voyager Innovations Raises $210 Million

PayMaya developer Voyager plans to tap cryptocurrencies as a payment method in the Philippines. The startup recently passed a $1 billion market valuation after closing a bumper $210 million funding round. Voyager joins the growing list of crypto unicorns.

PayMaya Developer Bags Unicorn Status

Philippines-based Voyager Innovations is the latest crypto unicorn in Southeast Asia following a massive $210 million fundraise. According to the press statement released on Tuesday (April 12, 2022), Voyager hopes to deploy the fresh capital towards building the recently announced support for digital currencies and virtual assets. 

Investment giant SIG Venture Capital reportedly led the massive funding round through an official representative identified as Akshay Bajaj. Bajaj spoke highly of Voyager’s payment initiative and stressed the importance of their work in the Philippines.

“The PayMaya team is a world-class set of professionals who have built the most complete and unified fintech ecosystem in the market. Leveraging PayMaya’s distribution strength with enterprises and consumers, Maya Bank has the potential to be one of the most successful digital banks not just in the Philippines, but globally. We are thrilled to partner with Voyager and existing shareholders to drive the digital ecosystem to new heights.”

Also, the capital raise drew investors from First Pacific Co., KKR, PLDT Inc, and WeChat’s parent company Tencent Holdings Limited.

The news comes on the heels of a key announcement from the Southeast Asian fintech heavyweight. Earlier in April 2022, Voyager unveiled cryptocurrency support on its payment portal PayMaya. 

Onboarding cryptos to the biggest Filipino digital payments providers allowed users to trade blockchain-powered currencies directly from the PayMaya accounts. The company said the move could signal a new age for financial services in the country and enable access to investment options for a severely underbanked population.

PayMaya Regulatory Approval

Following the announcement, PayMaya received regulatory approval from the Philippines Central Bank and was issued a virtual asset service provider (VASP) license. The startup is also an authorized electronic money issuer (EMI).

Commenting on the fundraiser that pushed Voyager to unicorn status, company President Shailesh Baidwan said:

“The strong endorsement from our new shareholders and participation of our existing investors in this fundraising validates the Company’s ability to expand into neobanking and add new cutting-edge financial products and services. We are excited to bring more game-changing innovations to millions of consumers and MSMEs with our integrated ecosystem as we address the pent-up demand for financial services”

Data from a recent study by tech giant Google, the Philippines is the fastest-growing economy in the Southeast Asia region. However, a significant portion of the country’s population remains unexposed to digital services and modern banking facilities. 

CEO and founder Orlando B. Vea opined that PayMaya is strategically positioned to drive adoption while maintaining compliance with international standards. Vea added that:

“Our strong record of execution and innovation is a testament to our world-class team’s hard work and talent. With this milestone, we are excited to leap forward and bring the best of PayMaya and Maya Bank to help unlock the digital economy for the underserved and unbanked Filipinos.”

Other News – Bitcoin’s Recent Dip

The world’s leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Bitcoin, has fallen below the $42,000 region after rallying to $47k last week. With the massive dip back to support levels around $38k-$41k, long traders experienced the most pain as over $300 million in liquidation calls were recorded in the last 48 hours alone.

Read more here…

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