Y Combinator Gives SMB Digital Banking Platform NextPay $125K Boost

Philippine FinTech platform NextPay got a financial shot in the arm with $125,000 in pre-seed funding from Silicon Valley startup accelerator Y Combinator (YC), e27.com reported on Tuesday (March 23).

A digital bank targeting small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the Philippines, NextPay is earmarking the new funds to advance services for underbanked commercial enterprises across the island country. The platform can be used to help SMBs handle payroll, send invoices and pay bills.

The company is also using the pre-seed funding to further grow its line of digital banking services for payments, credit and cash management. NextPay is now the fifth Filipino tech startup backed by YC, following Kalibrr in 2013, PayMongo in 2019, Avion School in 2021 and Dashlabs.ai in 2021, according to the article. YC has been instrumental in introducing numerous better-known startups including Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe and Twitch.

Launched in 2020, NextPay is an alternative to bank accounts for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Its platform enables companies to collect customer payments via digital invoices, manage their cash, and pay their employees, suppliers or bills in batches to any bank or e-wallet.

“Our goal is to empower smaller businesses with a spectrum of banking services that were previously unavailable to them because of the steep requirements and high fees that are typically aimed at larger, more developed companies that can afford them,” Don Pansacola, CEO and co-founder of NextPay, said in a statement, per the publication.

“NextPay wants to help the Philippines bounce back. We want to enable growing enterprises to maximize their capital, reach more customers, and generate more jobs and opportunities. This then stimulates economic transactions and creates a demand for stronger partnerships. It’s a domino effect,” he added.

The U.K. FinTech Revolut broke even in December 2020, when Co-founder and CEO Nik Storonsky said the firm saw a 40 percent revenue decline as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold.

NextPay was formed in 2019 from the merger of two Hanoi-based FinTech startups, Vimo Technology and mPOS Technology. At the time, NextPay was talking with five different investors to raise around $30 million.