Gree Ventures joins $1.5M fundraising round for Philippine remittance startup

Gree Ventures has joined a US$1.5M pre-series A round in support of Ayannah, a migrant-focused remittance service based in the Philipines and California. Founded in 2008, Ayannah deploys two main products for unbanked overseas workers: Sendah, a B2C gift remittance service that targets the 12 million Filipinos working overseas, and Sendah Direct, a B2B payment platform that distributes prepaid mobile phone credits, online game credits, and microinsurance products.

According to Ayannah, Sendah boasts 50,000 total users and Sendah Direct has already served more than nine million customers through its network of over 7,000 distributors.

“[Gree’s] network of partners and portfolio companies in other Southeast Asian countries will allow us to solidify our leadership position in digital commerce and payments for migrants and the unbanked in the Philippines and hasten our expansion to other emerging markets,” Mikko Perez, Ayannah’s CEO, said in a statement.

Melissa Lucas, an Ayannah spokeswoman, tells Tech in Asia that the company’s expansion roadmap includes Indonesia, India, Nigeria, Honduras, and Guatemala. Lucas adds that the new capital will be also be used toward customer acquisition and product development.

Gree Ventures joins existing investors that include Wavemaker Labs, Golden Gate Ventures, IMJ Investment Partners, and Beenos. Ayannah raised approximately US$3.5 million in two previous seed rounds.

See: 5 web-based money transfer services for Filipinos around the world