BAYANIPAY RAISES $4.5M IN SEED FUNDING ROUND

FINANCIAL services company BayaniPay said it has successfully raised $4.5 million in seed funding from East-West Bank, Wavemaker Partners and Talino Venture Labs.

The fresh capital from East-West Bank and Wavemaker Partners will allow BayaniPay to expand the technology team as the company scales its product lineup and expands its markets.

“Streamlining cross-border payment systems have become more urgent than ever as remittances grow in scale from overseas workers. BayaniPay is addressing this pain point with their suite of payment solutions that simplifies the various types of remittances,” Eric Manlunas, Wavemaker Partners founder and managing partner, said.

BayaniPay contracted with East-West Bank to offer Filipino-American customers banking services, including a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. insured checking account.

East West Bank joins BDO Unibank; Asian Journal, one of the leaders in the Asian American media industry; and Seafood City, the largest Filipino-owned supermarket chain in the United States, in BayaniPay’s roster of industry-leading collaborators.

This allows BayaniPay to become the first crossborder, digital financial service for the Filipino American community, which is 4.2-million strong and accounts for $146 billion, or 14.4 percent of the Asian American market in the United States.

In cooperation with BDO Unibank, BayaniPay is enabling its users in the US to directly pay services in the Philippines through paycode technologies.

Its partnership with East West Bank will allow customers to open a digital bank account with a Visa debit card in the United States.

BayaniPay has gained over 7,000 users and its work in disrupting the global banking landscape has caught the attention of many digital publications, including Forbes and American Banker.