FINTECH FIRM SHIFTS FOCUS ON SMES, SETS EXPANSION PLAN
Digital payments company Paynamics Technologies Inc. plans to raise $12.5 million (P607 million) from investors to fund its expansion as Filipinos shift to more cashless transactions.
Paynamics, developed by Filipinos and backed by Japanese e-commerce operator Beenos Inc., has a 10-year history providing online payments to clients.
The company is seeing broader opportunities among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMES) as the use of e-payments skyrockets during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Esther Magleo, Paynamics chief finance officer, said during a virtual media briefing on Tuesday the fresh funds would be used to partly cover its fiveyear expansion road map.
“We see a bright future for digital, particularly for small to medium enterprises,” said Paynamics chair and cofounder Ronald Gerald Magleo.
Esther, Ronald and his spouse, Paynamics CEO Mylene Chua-magleo, started the business in 2010, when digital payments was an emerging sector.
The company is positioning ahead of a major shift in the way Filipinos pay for goods and services. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) earlier said digital payments could account for half of all transactions in two to three years.
On Tuesday, the company launched Paynamics Biz, which will cater to SMES. Services include Pay via Link, which targets merchants that sell through digital channels such as Facebook, Instagram, email or messaging platforms and a QR (quick response) code platform for merchants with physical stores.
It is pursuing a strategy different from competitors by focusing on the needs of SMES, which account for the vast majority of businesses in the Philippines.
“Most e-wallets cater to consumers,” Ronald said.
From over 800 merchants today, Paynamics Biz is eyeing to register 100,000 SMES by 2023. In terms of volume, it targets to reach 100,000 transactions per day in 2021 and over 800,000 by 2025.
“We designed Paynamics Biz to solve the collection and disbursement pain points of SMES, especially during this unprecedented global pandemic that has rendered them cash-strapped and hanging by the thread,” Mylene said.
Paynamics became a certified operator of payments systems in February and obtained an e-money license from the BSP in June 2020. This allowed the company to engage in the e-money business as a nonbank institution.