DIGITAL payments firm PayMaya Philippines, Inc. said on Tuesday the number of merchants it has enabled to accept contactless payments grew by more than 1,400% year-on-year as of September.
The increase signifies that cashless and contactless payment and money transfer technologies are now 鈥減art of the world鈥檚 arsenal鈥 against the coronavirus pandemic, PayMaya Founder and Chief Executive Officer Orlando B. Vea said in an e-mailed statement.聽
PayMaya said it is also providing up to P60 million worth of support to small businesses to help them digitize amid the pandemic crisis.
Among the businesses that use PayMaya鈥檚 cashless technology are Megaworld, McDonald鈥檚 Philippines, Jollibee Foods Corp., Goldilocks, Unilever, Petron, Shell, Robinsons Malls, SM Supermalls, Smart Communications, Angkas, and Food Panda, among others.
PayMaya is a subsidiary of Voyager Innovations, Inc., the digital arm of PLDT Inc.
PLDT, China鈥檚 Tencent Holdings Ltd., Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., International Finance Corp., and IFC Emerging Asia Fund had signed agreements in April to commit up to $120 million in new funding towards Voyager鈥檚 expansion plans.
PLDT Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Manuel V. Pangilinan expects PayMaya to be profitable by 2024.
Voyager鈥檚 portfolio, aside from the PayMaya e-wallet and app for consumers, includes PayMaya Enterprise for end-to-end merchant-acquiring solutions and Smart Padala, which has over 30,000 partner agent touchpoints nationwide.
Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority stake in 大象传媒 through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. 鈥 Arjay L. Balinbin
