Fallout at PayMongo: alleged harassment by CEO, founder departures, growth woes

Terence Lee co-reported this story.

The fate of PayMongo, the rising Philippine-based fintech company backed by Y Combinator and Stripe, hangs in a delicate balance.

It has been ensnared by a falling out among C-suite leaders, the ousting of two out of the firm’s four co-founders, as well as allegations of questionable spending and recent employee harassment against senior leaders.

The PayMongo board, chaired by co-founder Luis Sia, has launched a formal investigation against Francis Plaza, the firm’s co-founder, CEO, and board member.

In parallel, an employee, who left the firm in February, filed a formal complaint to the company’s board last week on the harassment that he faced, which follows earlier allegations he had made, Tech in Asia has learned.

Sia, in a statement sent to us, said that the board has “appointed an independent third party as of two weeks ago to assess and investigate these claims. In addition, the internal Committee on Decorum has started its own investigation in compliance with the law.”

In an interview with Tech in Asia, Plaza says the board is taking the complaint “seriously.” “I fully support this and will cooperate fully because I have nothing to hide,” he says regarding the investigation that has been launched.

At PayMongo, Plaza was both in the driver’s seat as well as in the limelight: He took on the public-facing role of speaking to investors and leading fundraising efforts.

In the past year, the 29-year-old has taken to Instagram to chronicle his extensive trips across Europe and the US, a birthday party in a posh villa in Alicante, Spain, and his luxury Porsche car, among others. It’s a similar story for another co-founder, Jaime Hing III, who’s the chief technology officer.

Meanwhile, some company spending has been questioned, including certain business class flights and a company loan that Plaza and Sia used to finance a property rental in Forbes Park, an ultra high-end gated community in the Philippines that’s described as the “Beverly Hills” of the country.

Plaza contends that these expenses, personal and corporate, were reasonable. Three of the startup’s co-founders have sold a small portion of their shares for cash, he adds.

PayMongo was founded in 2019 by Plaza, Hing, Sia, and Edwin Lacierda with the aim of simplifying digital payments acceptance for SMEs in the Philippines. Using its solution, merchants can accept payments via credit cards, e-wallets like GrabPay or GCash, or send their customers one-time payment links.

Like many fintech firms, PayMongo grew quickly amid the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced many businesses to go digital. As one of the few – if not only – payment startups offering a fully digital onboarding process when it launched, PayMongo earned itself a check from startup accelerator Y Combinator. Only a few startups in the country have achieved this.

An employee’s “kingmaker”?

Why the other co-founders left

Luxury cars

Jostling for turf