NextPay gets funding from US-based start-up accelerator

MANILA, Philippines — Local fintech startup NextPay has secured a $125,000 funding from Silicon Valley-based startup accelerator Y Combinator to expand its services further and help financially underserved businesses in the country.

NextPay, an all-in-one digital banking solutions provider, is now one of five Filipino tech startups to be backed and selected by global powerhouse Y Combinator.

Y Combinator is popularly known as the launchpad of many iconic startups such as Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe and Twitch, among many others.

NextPay chief executive officer and co-founder Don Pansacola said the funding round from Y Combinator allows the company to scale even faster to bring digital financial services closer to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

“Our goal is to empower smaller businesses with a spectrum of banking services that were previously unavailable to them because of the steep requirements and high fees that are typically aimed at larger, more developed companies that can afford them,” Pansacola said.

Through the $125,000 investment, NextPay founders want to leverage their previous experience working in “unicorn” companies to expand their line of digital banking services.

Their plans include new digital solutions for payments, credit and personal cash management.

“We plan to introduce more payment acceptance methods, virtual credit cards, and other digital solutions that enable businesses to manage their cash flow and alleviate the bottlenecks of the Philippine financial landscape,” Pansacola said.

“We will also partner with human resource and accounting software companies to further streamline the financial operations of a growing company,” he said.

NextPay has processed over $2.5 million or about P120 million in digital transactions for more than 100 businesses since its launch last year.