By Steph Roxas
Voyager Innovations, the digital subsidiary of PLDT, has opened its new headquarters at the newly built Launchpad Building in Mandaluyong City, saying the transfer will signal a new stage of growth for the company.
Orlando Vea, president and CEO of Voyager, said he hopes the Silicon Valley-inspired facility would motivate its employees in creating tech solutions that would not only solve business problems but eliminate the digital divide in the country.
“As we have now come to say: here at Launchpad, every day is launch day. We do not stop innovating once we launch, and we do not cease creating once we?ve shipped to market. Our move is symbolic of Voyager, PLDT, Smart, and First Pacific moving into a new strategic space where it can accelerate the digital transformation of enterprises and consumers, economy and society,” Vea said.
Voyager Innovations is home to 600 employees and digital platforms such PayMaya, freenet, VYGR, Tackthis!, hatch, Lendr, and FINTQ. By August 2017, the company is set to launch the Voyager DX (Digital Transformation) to help businesses and individuals ride the digital wave.
In an interview, Vea said they are no longer pursuing its initial plan to expand and put up offices in other parts of the country as this is no longer necessary due to the online nature of the business.
“Our customers already come from different parts of the country because our business platform is online,? said Vea. ?But we still have staff on the ground for services like PayMaya because we need to support and manage our agents in the provinces. But for the most part, we don’t really need to have people outside Manila,” Vea explained.
Designed to house a millennial workforce, the Voyager Innovations headquarters has open workspaces which will also serve as a testing field for disruptive innovations, according to Vea.
“There’s so much that we are already doing, but there?s still more that we can do in the field of payments and digital consumer engagements. And we are also an incubation house,” Vea said.
