PayMaya building upon NFT craze to set up ‘big targets’ for 2022

PLDT Inc.-backed financial technology platform PayMaya is setting “big targets” for 2022 as it prepares to launch crypto investments and vastly expand touchpoints where users can transact with the company.

An integrated mobile wallet and business payments processor, Paymaya is looking at new areas for expansion, which would be supported by its telco affiliates and the upcoming launch of the group’s digital bank, Maya Bank.

“The board has given us very strong growth targets,” PayMaya president Shailesh Baidwan told reporters last week.

New offerings will include crypto investing after PayMaya secured a virtual asset service provider (VASP) license from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

This would allow the company to ride on the increasing adoption of crypto and nonfungible tokens (NFT), unique digital assets that gained popularity for their use in play-to-earn games like Axie Infinity.

NFTs exist in the same blockchain technology that underpin Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

“As most of you know, Philippines is one of the global highest in terms of consumption of NFTs,” Baidwan said.

“So to get the VASP license from the BSP to be able to offer crypto services is the other key part that we achieved through the course of 2021,” he added.

Baidwan said PayMaya was also preparing for the rollout of the government’s nationwide QR (quick response) standard, to be called QR Ph, as it seeks to expand its footprint among small to medium-sized enterprises.

A major payments processor for large corporations and government entities, PayMaya was targeting a million touchpoints in 2022 from 430,000 last year, Baidwan said.

Meanwhile, the PayMaya Group is gearing for the test launch of Maya Bank in the coming weeks to provide the unbanked population access to services such as savings, loans, credit and insurance.

The company’s expansion would be bankrolled by another round of fundraising through its owner, Voyager Innovations.

Baidwan confirmed they were in talks with shareholders to raise more money and a decision would soon be made. INQ