Manila, Philippines – ASEAN Fintech Group (AFG), a venture corporation focusing on fintech acceleration has acquired digital payments provider JazzyPay, marking the venture corporation’s expansion to the Philippines. The acquisition value of JazzyPay is valued at US$1.8m.

With the acquisition, AFG looks to leverage JazzyPay’s existing partnerships with leading national banks, e-wallets and payment processors of the metropolitan city. The platform’s team of founders and key management personnel will continue to spearhead the business’ growth, with accelerated resources and support at the group level. 

Kathleen Acosta-Marindo, co-founder and COO at JazzyPay said, “We believe working together and being a part of AFG’s fast-growing portfolio of companies will enhance our capabilities across ASEAN, fast-tracking the advancement of Southeast Asia’s fintech ecosystem and digital future.”

AFG’s expansion to the Philippines is part of its 2022 plans, which include expansion into Vietnam and Cambodia. AFG aims to create a regional omnichannel platform in the fintech space.

To date, AFG has in total invested more than US$10m to date on strategic mergers and acquisitions of burgeoning fintech startups within the region. Founders and institutional investors of the startups joining ASEAN Fintech Group were further incentivized with newly issued AFG shares, forming new partnerships with aligned interests towards the growth of the group. 

For Douglas Gan, executive director at ASEAN Fintech Group, with fintech in Southeast Asia seeing a tremendous growth in 2021, they are bullish that this rapid growth will continue into 2022 as they continue to acquire and merge with companies in the ASEAN region showing solid fundamentals.

“In fact, most of the companies that have joined us come with strong founders whose businesses are either profitable or near profitability. We also see a more matured fintech regulatory framework, guiding us through the complexities of each market. We are at a true inflection point for ASEAN fintech and we are honored to have the support of the fintech ecosystem at large,” Gan stated.

Manila, Philippines – As contactless payments have emerged as an essential solution for businesses during the pandemic, online payment platform for SMEs in the Philippines, JazzyPay, has partnered with one of the leading commercial banks in the country, UnionBank, enabling its onboarded businesses to reach a wider audience and thus to attract new users.

JazzyPay enables various businesses to accept cashless payments across credit and debit cards, e-wallets, and online baking, as well as over-the-counter cash deposits. The platform now has a total of 27 payment methods including UnionBank.

Through the partnership, JazzyPay customers can settle their payments using their UnionBank accounts, while UnionBank Online users can now pay for local and essential businesses registered with JazzyPay.

Aside from being a unified online payment platform, JazzyPay will also enable businesses to send online invoices to their customers without having to use third-party invoicing services. 

According to Edwin Bautista, the president and chief executive officer of UnionBank, transactions done through the bank’s mobile app rose from 40,000 in January 2020 to nearly 1 million by December 2020. As a part of its ‘Tech up, Pilipinas’ advocacy, UnionBank also recently launched its mobile banking app for SMEs, becoming the first SME-focused banking app in the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Kathleen Acosta, the co-founder and chief operating officer of JazzyPay, believes that UnionBank’s constant efforts in providing excellent financial services especially to SMEs have been evident through their recent projects. 

“As a payment platform that aims to empower more local businesses in the Philippines, JazzyPay is honored to be able to partner with an innovative company that shares the same vision of growth for SMEs and underserved businesses,” said Acosta.