NextPay, a digital financial solutions platform in the Philippines, has secured $1.6 million (over P80 million) in seed funding from Singapore-based venture capitalist Golden Gate Ventures and private investment vehicle Gentree Fund.

Golden Gate Ventures has interests in digital leaders Omise, Codapay, BukuWarung, Stripe, and Xendit, while Gentree Fund is a private investment vehicle of the Sy Family, which owns Filipino conglomerate SM Group.

NextPay will use the seed funding to expand its services, customer base, and introduce new digital banking solutions to micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

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“We believe that business banking will continue to digitally evolve, as the Philippines accelerates its digital transformation initiatives. This investment supports our goal of putting the power of big banks in the hands of small businesses,” said Don Pansacola, co-founder and CEO, NextPay.

Investors

Among other foreign investors that participated in the seed funding round are Tribe Capital, Broadhaven Ventures, 1982 Ventures, Saison Capital, and Razorpay, Rohit Mulani of GoTrade, and Abhinay Peddisetty and Chinmay Chauhan of BukuWarung. Goodwater Capital, which has invested in Facebook, Spotify, and Twitter, also supported the funding exercise.

Locally, NextPay’s seed funding was backed by Kickstart Ventures of the Ayala Group, Foxmont Capital, and First Asia Ventures, as well as angel investor Lisa Gokongwei of JG Summit, among many others.

The fundraising marks a milestone for NextPay after graduating from the prestigious Y-Combinator program in April when it received $125,000 in pre-seed investment.

Since its launch in 2020, NextPay has processed over $9.1 million (over P457.5 million) in digital transactions for more than 100 businesses with over 3,500 employees. Through its pay-per-use model, NextPay offers competitive fees that are lower than usual banking rates. Customers of NextPay also enjoy reduced processing times from as much as 3 days to just 30 minutes or less.

Digital banking solutions

“NextPay is building industry-leading digital banking solutions for SMEs to better manage their finances: from payroll to collections, to invoicing,” said Justin Hall, partner, Golden Gates Ventures. “Golden Gate Ventures’ decision to invest in NextPay was ultimately a very easy one: businesses need better banking services, and NextPay was building the best banking platform for Filipino SMEs.”

NextPay is a platform that provides underserved customers democratized access to easy and affordable financial services such as digital invoicing, cash management, and batch payments to any bank or e-wallet in the Philippines.

“The success of our seed funding exercise will help us accelerate our plans of introducing more meaningful digital banking solutions, including, but not limited to, corporate cards, loans, and integrations with other platforms focused on MSMEs,” said Aldrich Tan, co-founder and CEO, NextPay. “We will also be hiring more talent to make the NextPay platform more comprehensive, simple, and easier to use and avail of. We aim to provide the best service and experience so that our customers can focus more on growing their businesses.”

NextPay seeks to partner and collaborate with other organizations, businesses, and startups for integrations and partnerships, as it expands its digital banking solutions to create a more seamless financial ecosystem for its clients.