Phillippines-based Coins has secured $5 million from Naspers through its Naspers Ventures division. This round brings the total amount raised in Series A to more than $9.4 million.
With the fresh inflow of funds, the startup will focus on boosting its regional growth. In addition, it will be setting up more cash-based services and partnerships to further serve its customers. James Caviness, Vice President and Chief Product Officer of Naspers business PayU, will be joining the firm as a board member. In a statement, he said,
Coins has done an excellent job of providing consumers with easy, cost-effective access to core financial services. With its secure, scalable platform, built on exciting and potentially disruptive blockchain technology, we expect Coins to continue to grow and expand across Southeast Asia.
The company, a blockchain-enabled mobile payments platform, enables people to access a slew of financial services directly via smartphones. This digital financial service is based on the blockchain technology to gain traction with everyday consumers. Also, it can be used by everyone including those without a bank account. Talking about the recent fundraise, Ron Hose, CEO of Coins, said,
With Naspers Ventures, we’ve gained a great partner in our mission to democratize financial services by making them easily accessible and usable by anyone. We are extremely excited to be working together with them to build a more financially inclusive future.
The startup provides the users the first point of access to a wide range of financial services including remittances, airtime top-ups, e-commerce and P2P payments. Currently operating in the Philippines and Thailand, it is now gunning to extend its offerings to other markets where access to these services is either limited or prohibitively expensive.
Coins’ mobile wallet has generated a strong leadership position. It claims to have connected over a million previously unbanked customers with its ecosystem of financial services, by leveraging blockchain technology and partnerships with existing financial institutions.
