Philippines E-Wallet Unicorn Considers Crypto, Stocks Platform
Philippines E-Wallet Unicorn Considers Crypto, Stocks Platform
(Bloomberg) -- Globe Fintech Innovations Inc. is considering a platform that will allow the tens of millions of users of its mobile wallet to invest in cryptocurrencies and local and global equities, its CEO said on Monday.
The company known as Mynt, valued at more than $2 billion after its latest fund-raising round, will grow its financial-service offerings and “double down on lending,” CEO Martha Sazon said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Rishaad Salamat and Yvonne Man.
A venture of Globe Telecom Inc. and Ant Financial Services Co., Mynt’s growth hinges on making its electronic wallet, GCash, a gateway toward other services like loan and investments for the millions of Filipinos who are financially underserved, she said.
The company is on track to hit 3.5 trillion pesos ($69.5 billion) worth of transactions by end-2021, Sazon said, adding that it reported four straight months of “positive Ebitda” and net income after tax. Mynt’s transactions reached 1 trillion pesos in 2020.
Shares of Globe Telecom have rallied about 60% this year, the fourth-best performer in the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange Index, as investors put value on its fintech venture and demand for data stayed elevated.
Mynt’s CEO also said:
- The company is set to start a product that would allow subscribers to buy now and pay at a later date, and is considering offering a “more affordable” remittance service for Filipinos abroad
- GCash has 51 million registered users with a peak average daily transactions at 15 million and daily logins reaching 23 million
- One-third of GCash’s active users subscribe to at least one financial service it offers
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