Philippines’ fintech unicorn Maya seeking to raise $150M amid IPO push: report

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Maya, considered to be one of Southeast Asia’s most successful startups, is seeking to raise $150 million to boost its growth, a new report has revealed.

Serving the Filipino market, Maya is among the largest fintech startups in the country, focusing primarily on digital payments. Recently, it has diversified into neobanking and digital asset services after obtaining a banking license in 2021 and a virtual asset service provider (VASP) license in 2022, respectively.

The company is now seeking to raise a fresh round of capital to grow its market share, Bloomberg reports. Citing sources with knowledge of the company’s plans, the outlet claims Maya is working with financial advisers on the fundraising deal.

The outlet says the company, which boasts 47 million users—more than two-thirds of the adult population in the Philippines—is already drawing interest from prospective investors. These include existing backers such as New York-based buyout firm KKR, Susquehana’s Asian VC unit SIG, and EDBI, the investment arm of Singapore’s Economic Development Board. A few new investors have also expressed interest.

The new fundraising round is set to push Maya’s valuation to $2 billion.

In April 2022, the company raised $210 million at a $1.4 billion valuation, making it only the second unicorn in the country. Mynt, the parent company of Maya’s biggest rival GCash, was the first unicorn in the Philippines.

Maya rebranded last year from PayMaya, with digital asset services among the raft of new services it started offering. Since then, it has been urging its users to turn to digital assets for payments.

The fintech company faces stiff competition from other local VASPs as well as new entrants, including GCash, Maya’s biggest rival in the digital payments sector. As CoinGeek reported, GCash unveiled its GCrypto offering to select users as digital assets continue to see growing adoption in the country.

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