Mobile wallet provider GCash has teamed up with Fintech firm Ayannah, a Philippines-based startup that aims to offer affordable and more accessible digital financial services. Through the partnership, the companies will be introducing GCash Padala.
GCash Padala, a new remittance service, should enable GCash’s 40 million+ users with transferring funds to non-app users.
GCash Padala is reportedly a quicker, easier and more affordable way for people to remit funds from their mobile devices even if the recipient does not have an active digital wallet or mobile banking account.
The remittance service enables senders to save considerable time and effort from having to physically go to remittance centers, offering them the convenience of handling these transactions via their smartphones.
The recipients are able to claim their cash via thousands of remittance agents that are part of Ayannah’s large and fast-growing network of remittance partners.
GCash Padala recipients may also claim their cash at more than 2,000 participating Tambunting, Panalo Express, and VIP Center branches, with Ayannah reportedly adding thousands more across the Philippines within the next few weeks.
In order to help the nation’s residents, who may have been impacted by the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ), the mobile wallet has decided to waive all GCash Padala transfer fees from August 6 to 20, 2021.
As covered in January 2021, Globe Fintech Innovations, Inc. (Mynt), the Fintech arm of Globe Telecom and operator of the country’s preferred mobile wallet GCash, announced that it had secured a capital investment from ASP Philippines LP, a limited partnership fund managed by investment firm Bow Wave Capital Management.
The investment will be used to further spur the growth of financial inclusion and the digitization of payments and financial services in the Philippines. Mynt revealed in January of this year that it raised over $175 million in fresh capital from Bow Wave and its existing shareholders in multiple tranches, with a post-money valuation of the final tranches at close to $1 billion.
Philippines-based digital wallet GCash reportedly reached PHP 1 trillion (appr. $20.8 billion) in total transactions for the year 2020, which represents a 254% year-over-year (YoY) increase in transfers. Globe Fintech Innovations Inc. (Mynt), which manages GCash, is part of the portfolio firms of 917Ventures (one of the largest corporate incubators in the country that’s owned by Globe Telecom Inc).
The app peaked at PHP 7.5 billion (appr. $156 million) in total daily transaction value, and over 6 million transactions per day (as reported in January 2021). GCash’s user base has also grown considerably to over 33 million consumers (as reported in January), which is around a third of the Philippines’ population. In 2019, there were around 20 million people using GCash in the country.
