The Singapore-based Openspace Ventures, an early supporter of Indonesia’s Gojek and 30 Under 30 Asia laureate Rexy Josh Dorado’s Manila-based social media site Kumu, led the $5.1 million Series A investment round for Philippine financial firm Lista.
Existing investors 1982 Ventures, East Ventures (whose portfolio companies include Southeast Asian online travel giant Traveloka, Indonesian fintech unicorn Xendit, and Indonesian e-commerce company Tokopedia—which merged with Gojek last year to form GoTo Group), and Saison Capital—the venture capital arm of Japanese credit card company Credit Saison—were also participants in the round. Angel investors included Kumu co-founders Dorado and Roland Ros among others in the round.
Aaron Villegas, cofounder and CEO of Lista, said in a statement: “We are appreciative for the trust these investors have given, not just in us but in the immense potential of the quickly growing fintech industry in the Philippines.” PayMongo, a different fintech startup from the Philippines, raised $31 million in Series B funding in February from backers such as Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen’s JAM Fund and Philippine venture capital firms ICCP SBI Venture Partners and Kaya Founders, which is led by Lisa Gokongwei, a member of the billionaire family that owns the JG Summit conglomerate.
“We keep expanding organically at a very fast rate, but we also look at opportunities outside of what we are already doing. Our pipeline is quite aggressive “Villegas added.
In September 2021, Villegas and Khriz Lim co-founded Lista. The startup claims that since its debut, there have been over a million downloads.
According to Lista, the additional funding will be utilised to go beyond corporate management tools and create products tailored to individual users’ personal money. Filipinos who don’t own a business but want to manage their personal finances make up about 30% of our customer base “ance,” Lim added. “Using Lista, they keep tabs on their earnings, bill payments, and even savings. We think there is a lot of room for us to expand in this field.
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