Digital payment firm Xendit has signed up new partners in the Philippines in a bid to expand its operations in the country after raising $150 million Series C funding that elevated the company to a short-list of Southeast Asia unicorns.
Xendit is headquartered in Indonesia but also has a big presence in the Philippines.
The latest investment is expected to fuel Xendit’s plans to make its digital payments infrastructure available to more entrepreneurs in the Philippines and other key markets.
By specializing in building hyper-localized products for archipelago nations and catering to a broad spectrum of customer needs, Xendit said it has been able to build first-in-market products and quickly adapt to customer needs in the Southeast Asian region.
“We’re seeing an incredible shift to digital-first. Whether the business is a small Instagram shop or Southeast Asia’s largest enterprises, it’s now clear that businesses need to have a digital presence,” said Moses Lo, co-founder and CEO, Xendit.
“Xendit’s digital payments infrastructure enables the region’s new class of entrepreneurs to start and scale their payments faster and supercharges larger companies with modern, world-class financial services. What AWS has done for computing, Xendit is doing for payments.”
The last year has seen more than 200% year-over-year increase in total payments volume across the Philippines and Indonesia, maintaining a 25% month-over-month growth rate in the Philippines and continuing a track record of more than 10 percent month-over-month growth since inception.
“Xendit’s new round of fundraising and status as a unicorn will strengthen our mission to provide reliable and secure financial infrastructure to hundreds of thousands of growing businesses across the Philippines. Our dream is to accelerate the growth of the Philippine digital economy by continuing to build first-to-market solutions for enterprises and SMEs alike, while introducing the global VC community to the growing local startup ecosystem.” said Yang Yang Zhang, CEO and managing director of Xendit Philippines.
Xendit Philippines has played an integral part in the company’s growth and journey toward its unicorn status. Despite being a relative newcomer to the local payments space, Xendit said it become one of the biggest payment gateways in the country.
Over the past year, Xendit Philippines has paved the way in building first to market solutions that differentiates it from other companies in the scene. It was the first payment gateway to launch a direct debit and Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) solution as well as integrate to the top three e-wallets: GCash, GrabPay and PayMaya.
To build on this momentum, Xendit said it will be introducing three key initiatives:
- Auto Debit and Recurring Payments: a payments solution for merchants that supports subscriptions and account linking for future payments through Xendit’s Direct Debit and eWallet products
- Level Up Grant: a program for SMEs and individual business owners where they can get two months fee waiver across all payment channels, access to exclusive workshops, and be connected to Xendit’s list of partners that could support their businesses.
- Accelerator Program: a comprehensive initiative aimed at Filipino start-ups (1) achieving regionalization through hyper-localization; (2) providing opportunities for fee waivers and (3) bridging the gap between Filipino SMEs and international investors.
Since 2015, Xendit has raised a total of $238 million, including a $64M Series B led by Accel announced this March. Xendit is also one of the top Southeast Asian company on the YC Top 100 list.
“Xendit is at the forefront of digital transformation in Southeast Asia, providing businesses of all sizes with much needed and essential digital payments infrastructure,” said Ryan Sweeney, partner at Accel.
“With this fresh round of funding and a milestone valuation, Xendit has earned the credibility needed for long-term success and is inspiring the next generation of unicorns in Southeast Asia. We believe Xendit will thrive in the region.”
