Voyager Innovations, which owns the fintech firm Maya, on Tuesday bared plans to raise up to $150 million this year to support its aggressive expansion program.
“There is an effort to raise some money, anywhere between $100 to $150 million,” Manuel V. Pangilinan, Voyager chairman, said at the sidelines of the annual meeting of PLDT shareholders.
According to Pangilinan, the focus of the endeavor are new stockholders “but given the market conditions, I think the existing shareholders may have to participate for a portion” as well.
Pangilinan said PLDT will participate in the fundraising exercise.
He also expects Voyager to contribute positively to PLDT in the next two to three years, saying its forecast recover “will be led by the enterprise part of the business.”
In April last year, Voyager raised $210 million in new funds that helped push Maya’s valuation to unicorn status at $1.4 billion.
Leading the round is new investor SIG Venture Capital, the Asian venture capital arm of the global trading firm SIG.
Other new investors include Singapore-based global investor EDBI and investment holding company First Pacific Company Ltd.
Participants in the round are Voyager shareholders PLDT Inc., the global investment firm KKR; lead technology company Tencent; the International Finance Corp.; and IFC Emerging Asia Fund and IFC Financial Institutions Growth Fund managed by the IFC Asset Management Company, a division of IFC.
On the plan for Maya to do an initial public offering (IPO), Alfredo S. Panlilio, PLDT president and chief executive, said “ the plan eventually is to consider that” after managements shall have boosted its fundamentals.
Maya is the leading digital banking app in the country with 1.5 million bank customers and P14.7 billion in deposit balances as of end-2022.
