Philippine fintech Mynt among Southeast Asia’s 34 Unicorns: Credit Suisse

Philippine-based payments starup Mynt is the lone startup from the country that made it to Credit Suisse’s Southeast Asia 35 Unicorns list.

SEAsia 35 Unicorns list highlights technology companies in several industries and countries in the sub-region that are valued at over $1 billion.

Mynt is the holding company of Globe’s fintech arm managing the popular e-wallet GCash with the last funding round being at least $800 million and backed by strong business momentum.

The latest ASEAN Equity Research said that wallet sizes are increasing, credit traffic flow is accelerating, and use cases are widening.

“Mynt has been able to capitalize on these trends with the transformation of its GCash service to a super app that includes e-commerce (GLife) and financial services (lending, insurance, savings, and investments),” the research said.

The research titled ASEAN Unicorns, Scaling New Heights looks at the top startup companies in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

Companies in Singapore and Indonesia comprise 74% of the 35 unicorns. Sector-wise, fintech leads the pack, with 26%, followed by e-commerce with 20%, logistics with 11%, and diversified internet with 8%.

The payments firm is the first mover in the Philippines in enabling financial access for consumers and merchants. Its services include payments, remittances, loans, business solutions, and platforms.

Mynt raised over $175 million in fresh capital investment in the middle of 2020 from ASP Philippines LP, a limited partnership fund managed by Bow Wave Capital Management and its existing shareholders, across multiple tranches, with a post-money valuation of the final tranches at close to $1 billion.

Since then, GCash has sustained its remarkable growth, with its target gross transaction value seen to triple to over P3 trillion this year from over P1 trillion in 2020.

Registered users continued to increase, with over 44 million registered users and more than 2.5 million merchants and social sellers as of end-June accelerated by the ongoing pandemic.