PayMongo could raise fresh capital early next year

PAYMONGO Philippines, Inc. could look to raise fresh capital again by 2026, its top official said, with its current war chest still sufficient for its expansion plans this year.

“We want to make sure that 2025 remains steady, but the growth will justify that next move. There’s been a lot of interest to raise money… and the company is still going through major changes. So, we don’t know to what extent we will be able to grow the business,” PayMongo President and Chief Executive Office Elmer M. Malolos told BusinessWorld on Friday.

The company’s last fundraising round was in 2022 through which it was able to raise a total of $31 million. Mr. Malolos said this was enough to last them for two years.

PayMongo plans to use the fresh capital to expand overseas likely in Southeast Asia, the official said.

“That has always been the plan, but it commands a different type of consideration because we need to understand what will be required of us when we go to this country — how much is the license and all that. If we have this much money to run the operation for 24 years, will I be willing to cut it to 12 years? So, those are those are considerations I need to make,” Mr. Malolos said.

“It will have to be in Southeast Asia. It will have to be in areas where we can maximize our partnership with Stripe, which is our major shareholder, and also with some of the partners that we are looking at,” he added.

PayMongo could also breakeven within the next two years as they expect strong gross profit growth, Mr. Malolos said.

“We will probably breakeven, the earliest will be maybe in the first quarter of 2026. Although I’m projecting that at the current run rate, it could be faster.”

Last year, the company’s gross profit increased by 240% year on year. Mr. Malolos said in a separate speech on Friday.

He added that gross profit growth this year will be faster than the pace seen in previous years. They also expect total payment volume coursed through PayMongo to grow to $1.7 billion this year from $1.1 billion last year.

The company will also partner with more digital banks to scale its small business lending, Mr. Malolos said.

“We’re also partnering with banks. We’re also partnering with financial institutions that all have licenses to basically lend money so we don’t lend ourselves, because we don’t have a license to lend money. But they use our rates to get to our customers,” he said.

PayMongo expects partner merchants that actively borrow from the company to grow further this year, he added.

“We have about 20,000 merchants. We have 7,000 actively engaged,” Mr. Malolos said.

The company on Friday unveiled a full-scale financial operating system (OS) with dynamic onboarding as part of its sixth anniversary.

The expanded financial platform will “streamline business payments, provide instant access to funding, and enable software platforms to embed financial tools seamlessly,” the company said.

It will offer instant settlement capabilities, embedded finance infrastructure, comprehensive payment assistance, advanced fraud prevention compliance, and PayMongo Capital, which will give partner merchants access to funding.

“We’re not just changing our look, we’re redefining how businesses access financial power,” said Luis Sia, chairman and co-founder of PayMongo. “With our upcoming dynamic onboarding and new Financial OS, businesses will soon be able to start accepting digital payments faster than ever. PayMongo Capital further ensures they have the resources to scale seamlessly.” — Aaron Michael C. Sy