Filipino Startup, PayMongo, Secures $2.7 Million In Funding; Tinder, Paypal Co-Founders As Investors

Philippine financial technology startup, PayMongo, secured $2.7 million in seed capital from investors to help grow its online payment business. Some of the investors include PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen, Founders Fund, Stripe, and Y Combinator.

PayMongo, a combination of the word"pay" and the Filipino term for mung beans, "mongo," is a company that aims to help Filipino sellers receive payments online. In the same manner as sprouting mung beans, what founders Francis Plaza, Edwin Lacierda, Jamie Hing and Luis Sia want to do is to help small businesses grow by providing an easier way of setting up online payments.

The internet economy of the Philippines, which currently stands at $5 billion, is forecasted to quadruple in size in the next few years, but to achieve this it will need help from companies like PayMongo to make seamless transactions online.

As of today, there are still Filipino merchants who don't have a convenient payment gateway for their online shoppers. Accepting credit card transactions aren't always an option as they charge high rates, which small business owners in the Philippines can't afford.

With this obstacle in mind, most Filipino sellers' go-to is the old track-my-bank-deposit-slip method, which works by crosschecking one's bank account for any changes in the balance before processing a customer's order -- a very tedious process. It can also be difficult for buyers to get refunds on product returns.

PayMongo aims to be the solution for Filipinos and possibly other Southeast Asian entrepreneurs. Chief Operations Officer Edwin Lacierda said in an interview with ANC, that what they have done is to "democratize payments."

It will not be an easy journey for the Filipino startup as similar payment solution companies are already available in the Philippines, like DragonPay and PesoPay. Some sellers also use international services like Paypal and Skrill. PayMongo, however, aims to appeal to a much smaller market segment like freelancers and microentrepreneurs.