Philippine mobile wallet GCash has raised more than $175 million in capital from New York-based private equity fund Bow Wave Capital Management, the financial technology arm of Globe Telecom Inc said.
BusinessWorld
January 8, 2021 | 7:21 pm
Globe Fintech Innovations, Inc. (Mynt), operator of mobile wallet GCash, has raised more than $175 million in fresh capital from investment firm Bow Wave Capital Management, Ayala-led Globe Telecom, Inc. said.
“Mynt raised over $175 million in fresh capital from Bow Wave and its existing shareholders in multiple tranches, with post-money valuation of the final tranches at close to $1 billion,” Globe said in an e-mailed statement.
Globe said the fresh funding for its fintech arm will “further spur the growth of financial inclusion and the digitization of payments and financial services in the Philippines.”
The investment by Bow Wave, a close-ended private equity fund with a mandate to invest globally in online and mobile payment ecosystem companies, “will translate to a minority equity interest in Mynt,” Globe said.
Published January 3, 2021, 6:00 AM
Year-Ender
The pandemic did not wreak as much devastation in the telecom sector as it did in transportation, property and trade.
In a locked down world, the mantra of businesses became: digitalize or die.
Most of the country’s over 100 million locked down population went online, working and studying from home, making purchases on the web and resorting to telemedicine.
Digital was suddenly equated with safety as face-to-face interaction heightened contagion.
People developed an aversion to physical cash as well, prematurely forcing transactions to go contactless.
And while lockdown froze ongoing upgrades and expansion, the telecom duopoly resumed building immediately though they pared down their capex.