After closing a $175 million private equity funding from the New York-based Bow Wave Capital Management, Mynt, also known as Globe FinTech Innovations, seeks to raise more funds to reach unicorn status. As earlier reported on TechNode Global, the new fund infusion brought the company’s valuation close to $1 billion, the threshold for a startup to be considered a unicorn.
Mynt serves as the FinTech arm of Globe Telecom, one of the biggest telecommunications companies in the Philippines. It was formed in 2015 as a startup partnership by Globe Telecom, Jack Ma’s Ant Group, and Ayala Corp. The company is responsible for the key financial services offered by Globe Telecom including the popular mobile wallet service GCash.
Earlier this month, Mynt closed a deal that secured Bow Wave Capital Management a 14 percent stake in the company. This investment arrangement resulted in the dilution of the shares of Globe Telecom, Ant Financial, and Ayala Corp. Both the shareholdings of Globe Telecom and Ant Financial dropped from 46 percent to 40 percent, while Ayala Corp’s share went from 8 percent to 6 percent.
A Nikkei Asia report says that Mynt is seeking more fundraising rounds in 2021. Mynt Chief Executive Officer Martha Sazon declined to reveal the details of the planned fundraising. However, she hinted that there will be at least one more significant funding round within the year. “What I can tell you is we could open up another round this year,” Sazon told Nikkei Asia.
Sazon similarly refused to identify the potential investors the company is eyeing or if there are already ongoing negotiations for possible investments. What Mynt’s CEO shared was a description of the investors they prefer to deal with.
“Someone who is aligned to the GCash story and vision, which is providing financial services for all,” was Sazon’s description the investor they are targeting. She also said that they are looking for investors who appreciate the dynamics in the country, including the challenges the Philippines is facing.
If Mynt manages to attract new investments, it will become the second unicorn from the Philippines. The country’s first known unicorn is Revolution Precrafted, a company that develops prefabricated designer homes. The company reached the $1 billion mark in October 2017 after closing a Series B round led by K2 VC of Singapore.
However, Revolution Precrafted, which reached a valuation of $1.85 billion in 2017, is reportedly struggling. A DealStreetAsia story in early 2020 raised questions on the company’s financial health after it allegedly tried to raise small funding amounts relative to its valuation.
Mynt is launching a fundraising campaign with excellent data to show to investors. In 2020, the company’s GCash platform facilitated transactions worth more than $20.78 billion and raised its user base to 33 million. The Philippine digital payments industry has a lot of room for growth, as the Bankgo Sentral ng Pilipinas, the country’s Central Bank says that 85 percent of retail sales in the Philippines is still conducted in cash.