Fintech firm PayMongo attracts $2.7m in seed funding from Stripe, Y Combinator, others

Fintech startup PayMongo has secured a US$2.7 million investment for its seed round from top Silicon Valley investors, including Founders Fund, Stripe, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, Y Combinator, Global Founders Capital, Soma Capital, Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen, and a number of other angel investors.

Photo credit: Paymongo

“This fresh set of capital will allow PayMongo to grow the team, accelerate product development, acquire businesses more aggressively, and close down on many strategic partnerships,” said the company in a statement.

Launched this year, PayMongo’s product enables merchants to receive payments online through methods like shareable payment links and APIs.

In a July interview with Tech in Asia, the company’s CEO, Francis Plaza, likened PayMongo to US-based Stripe, which has evolved into a US$23 billion business.

One strength, he points out, is that the firm’s service is tailored to the characteristics of the Philippine ecommerce market, where few people use credit cards and much of the selling happens informally over sites like Facebook or Instagram.

In the near term, PayMongo says it’s targeting to grow its base in the Philippines and become the biggest payment service provider there.

Since inception, the company claims to have built a network of more than 1,000 businesses, with the total transaction value processed by the platform growing at an average of 117% week over week.