Financial technology startup BayaniPay said it has raised $4.5 million in seed funding from venture capital investors East West Bank, Wavemaker Partners, and Talino Venture Labs.
BayaniPay said the fresh capital from East West Bank and Wavemaker Partners will allow it to expand its technology team as the company scales its product lineup and expands into more geographies.
BayaniPay said that early this year it contracted East West Bank, the largest independent bank headquartered in Southern California, to offer Filipino American customers banking services, including a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insured checking account.
East West Bank joins BDO Unibank, the Philippines’ largest bank; Asian Journal, one of the leaders in the Asian American media industry; and Seafood City, the largest Filipino-owned supermarket chain in the US, in BayaniPay’s roster of collaborators.
The collaboration, BayaniPay said, positions it as the first cross-border, digital financial service for the Filipino American community, which is 4.2 million strong and accounts for $146 billion or 14.4% of the Asian American market in the US a segment that has been previously underserved by traditional banks and other financial institutions.
In cooperation with BDO Unibank, BayaniPay said will deliver more financial solutions to Filipinos in the US soon.
The fintech startup said it is collaborating with BDO Unibank to enable its users in the US to directly pay services in the Philippines through paycode technologies.
Local businesses and services can simply provide Filipino American customers pay codes that they can use for easy and convenient cross-border payment of bills, tuition and school fees, medical expenses, and even real estate.