Last month, we published a listicle of startups in Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia that have made notable achievements in 2021. We decide to build upon this new tradition by publishing one for startups in the Philippines.
There were plenty of exciting developments in the country this year. In addition to funding announcements by companies in various verticals, from gaming to e-commerce to green tech, we also saw more Filipino startups getting into the prestigious Y Combinator programme.
We believe that these startups would not be the last to brighten up the local tech ecosystem, and are excited to see how the final quarter of 2021 will be like.
Here is the list of the startups, compiled for your reading convenience.
1. Mynt
Mynt, a fintech platform offering mobile payments and business loans, announced in January it has raised over US$175 million in fresh capital from ASP Philippines, a Limited Partnership fund managed by Bow Wave Capital Management.
The new funds will go towards growing its product offerings to “further spur” the growth of financial inclusion and digitisation of payments and financial services in the Philippines.
The financing was raised in multiple tranches, with the post-money valuation of the final tranches reaching close to US$1 billion.
2. Podcast Network Asia (PNA)
Podcast Network Asia (PNA), a podcast network agency, announced in early 2021 that it has raised US$750,000 in seed funding. Local VC firm Foxmont Capital and Jakarta-headquartered Venturra Discovery joined Lisa Gokongwei, President of Summit Media, in the investment round. Kumu, a local live-streaming platform, also participated.
Launched in August 2019, PNA provides podcast creators with access to production support and monetisation opportunities. It claims it has since grown its roster to 415 podcasts, with over 10 million listeners by the time this funding was announced.
3. Expedock
Expedock, an Artificial Intelligence startup working with supply chain companies, announced in February that it has landed US$4 million in seed funding.
The round was led by a US$2.5 million investment by Ali Partovi, who had previously backed notable startups including Airbnb, Dropbox and Facebook.
Additional investors include executives from global tech companies and startups including eBay, Salesforce, LinkedIn and Instagram.
4. Mosaic Solutions
Mosaic Solutions, a startup offering cloud-based management software for F&B and hospitality companies, announced in February that it has raised an additional US$1 million in a pre-Series A preferred equity offering.
The fresh funds were provided by Gentree.
Mosaic had recently announced a US$1.5 million pre-Series A round in September 2020 from a slew of investors including Australian early-stage VC firm Investible, IdeaSpace (a non-profit which recently launched Opportunity Fund out of Manila), KMC Founders Fund, and JC Capital.
Also Read: Vietnam’s data-driven loyalty platform Society Pass closes Series C, relaunches Leflair
5. Ayannah
Fintech startup Ayannah announced in February that it is seeking to raise Series B round of funding to fuel its future expansion into Vietnam and India, its founder and CEO Mikko Perez.
To date, the company has raised over US$9 million from two funding rounds — seed in 2013 and Series A in 2015.
6. Avion School
Avion School, an edutech startup focusing on software development education, announced that it has secured funding from Y Combinator after being accepted into the global technology accelerator programme.
Launched in 2020 by Victor Rivera and John Young, Avion is an online school that teaches Filipinos to become remote software engineers globally. Students can sign up for a 12-week course that teaches them the engineering stack and skills required by software developer roles.
7. NextPay
NextPay, a digital banking platform for small businesses and entrepreneurs, announced in March that it has secured US$125,000 in pre-seed funding from Y Combinator (YC).
NextPay becomes the fifth local tech startup to be backed and selected by YC after Kalibrr (2013), PayMongo (2019), Avion School (2021), and Dashlabs.ai (2021).
8. Kraver’s Canteen
Cloud kitchen startup Kraver’s Canteen announced in April that it has secured US$1.5 million in a seed round led by Foxmont Capital.
Angel investors participating in the round include Lance Gokongwei (Chairman of JG Summit, Robinsons, Cebu Pacific), Brian Cu (co-founder of Grab PH, gojek, Zalora), and Paulo Campos III (co-founder of Zalora).
The fresh funds will go towards expanding its operations by building 100 kitchens across the Philippines and investing heavily in regional metropolis hubs like Cebu, Iloilo, and Davao.
9. Uploan
Uploan, a fintech company providing payroll financial services, announced that it has raised a senior secured loan of up to US$15 million from debt financer Lendable.
Uploan is Lendable’s first client in the Philippines. The long-term facility will allow Uploan to grow its loan book, redeploy Lendable’s capital and hold more exposure on-balance sheet.
10. Tier One Entertainment
Tier One Entertainment, a gaming and e-sports entertainment startup, announced an undisclosed amount of pre-Series A round of funding in April. Led by Gobi Partners, the round also included the participation from Warner Music Group, Octava, KAYAC, and Atlas Ventures.
The proceeds will also be utilised to hire back-end teams that will further support their talents, expand its e-sports operations in Blacklist International (Tier One’s e-sports team), and set up its first content creation hub in the Philippines.
Tier One was founded in 2017 by e-sports veteran Tryke Gutierrez, cosplay and gaming superstar Alodia Gosiengfiao, and seasoned entrepreneur Brian Lim.
Also Read: Dropezy raises US$2.5M Pre-Series A funding round to further expand e-grocery service
11. Tonik
Filipino neobank Tonik raised US$17 million in a pre-Series B funding round led by iGlobe Partner in May.
Existing investors Sequoia India, Altara Ventures and Insignia Venture Partners also participated. They were joined by Citius and Baring Vostok Capital Partners, besides several unnamed Philippine family offices.
Tonik plans to accelerate its growth, as well as invest aggressively in product development with the funding.
12. Great Deals E-Commerce Corporation
E-commerce enabler company Great Deals E-Commerce Corporation raised US$30 million in Series B funding round led by local logistics major Fast Group.
The round was joined by private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, besides existing investor Navegar. It comes almost a year and a half after Great Deals secured US$12 million Series A from Navegar in January 2020.
13. Fortuna Cools
Fortuna Cools, a startup seeking to find an alternative to plastics, secured a seed funding round led by ADB Ventures and Katapult Ocean Fund. Pasudeco Development Corporation, the Manila Angel Investors Network, she1k, and Nardo Holdings, also joined the round.
The company will use the capital to grow its sales and engineering teams, as well as finance its higher production volumes to reduce unit costs and benefit more farmers.
14. zennya
zennya, a mobile healthcare and medical last-mile logistics startup, secured US$1.2 million in a funding round led by Foxmont Capital Partners, Ignite House of Innovation, and DayOne Capital Ventures in May. The round also saw participation from several prominent families and angels from the Philippines and Thailand.
The funding will be used to expand zennya’s service to all major cities in the Philippines.
15. Kumu
Live-streaming app Kumu raised an undisclosed Series B funding round co-led by SIG, who is also a shareholder in ByteDance, and Openspace Ventures.
The funding round included existing investors Summit Media, Kickstart Ventures, Foxmont Capital Partners, and Gobi-Core Philippine Fund. It also introduced new investors Gentree Fund, the venture vehicle of HM Investment Management, and Endeavor Catalyst Fund by the global non-profit Endeavor.
The startup said that it has experienced “tremendous growth” over the past year when it topped the Google Play rankings in the Philippines, with users spending almost an hour per day on the app.
16. GrowSari
GrowSari, a B2B platform that helps small convenient stores, raised an undisclosed amount in Series B funding round.
Investors that are involved include Robinsons Retail Holdings, JG Digital Equity Ventures, and Wavemaker Partners, besides Tencent, Pavilion Capital, International Finance Corporation, ICCP SBI Venture Partners, and Saison Capital.
This round brings GrowSari’s total funds raised to date to over US$30 million.
17. Voyager Innovations
Voyager Innovations, the digital services arm of Philippine telco giant PLDT, raised US$167 million in a new funding round for its fintech unit PayMaya.
Existing shareholders such as KKR and Tencent also joined the round, along with new investor IFC Financial Institutions Growth Fund.
This investment includes US$121 million in fresh funding and US$46 million from previously committed funds.
Also Read: Building Malaysia’s fintech ecosystem
18. Alternative Housing Group
Alternative Housing Group (AHG), a real-estate tech startup and proptech incubator, secured PHP55 million (US$1.1 million) in seed funding. The round was led by Foxmont Capital Partners, a local VC fund and investor in homegrown startups such as Kumu, Edukasyon.ph, and Booky.
Real estate mogul David Leechiu, entrepreneur Melissa Limcaoco, and Magsaysay family also joined.
The startup plans to fuel its upcoming projects that they have prepared and lined up in the coming years.
19. edamama
edamama, a new e-commerce platform designed for mothers, announced a US$5 million pre-Series A round from investors.
Investors include Gentree Fund, Robinsons Retail Holdings, and Kickstart Ventures, who are the affiliates of SM Investments Corporation, JG Summit, and Ayala Corporation, respectively. The round also saw participation from Foxmont Capital Partners, an early-stage VC firm based in the Philippines, besides unnamed Filipino and global angel investors.
20. NextPay
Digital financial solutions platform NextPay raised US$1.6 million in seed funding co-led by Golden Gate Ventures, and Gentree Fund, a private investment vehicle of the Sy Family, which owns Filipino conglomerate SM Group.
Other investors are Tribe Capital, Broadhaven Ventures, 1982 Ventures, Saison Capital, and Razorpay, besides Rohit Mulani of GoTrade and Abhinay Peddisetty and Chinmay Chauhan of BukuWarung.
Goodwater Capital also co-invested, along with local VCs such as Kickstart Ventures (Ayala Group), Foxmont Capital, and First Asia Ventures, as well as angel investor Lisa Gokongwei of JG Summit also joined.
The funding will be used to grow NextPay’s suite of services, expand its customer base, and introduce new digital banking solutions to micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
21. Yield Guild Games (YGG)
Blockchain gaming startup Yield Guild Games (YGG) said in a blog post that it sold 25 million of its native YGG cryptocurrency tokens in just 31 seconds and raised about US$12.5 million in USD Coin.
With the token sale concluded, YGG will start to establish its decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO).
DAO, also known as decentralised autonomous corporation, is an organization represented by rules encoded as a computer programme that is transparent, controlled by the organisation members, and not influenced by a central government.
22. Etaily
E-commerce enabler platform Etaily secured US$1.6 million in seed funding from Ayala Ventures, Foxmont Capital Partners, Magsaysay Shipping & Logistics, the Boston Consulting Group, and unnamed angels.
Launched in March 2020, Etaily provides brands with a one-stop, omnichannel solution to help them sell virtually. From content production and channel creation to warehousing and fulfilment, it offers a full suite of services encompassing anything brands would need to attract consumers, transact online, and deliver their products.
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Etaily claims it has generated more than one million transactions and made more than 50,000 unique products available in countries such as the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore.
23. The Philippine Digital Asset Exchange (PDAX)
The Philippine Digital Asset Exchange (PDAX) announced a US$12.5 million funding round led by an unknown VC firm based in the UK, with participation from Hong Kong-listed fintech company BC Group.
Most of PDAX’s existing investors, including Beenext and CMT Digital, besides Ripple and several prominent family offices in the country, also joined the round.
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