Digital payments and blockchain start-up firm Coins said on Friday it has raised $5 million in fresh capital to further its mission of expanding access to basic financial services for unbanked individuals in the Philippines and throughout Southeast Asia.
Those that invested in the bitcoin exchange and electronic wallet (e-wallet) service, include Kickstart Ventures and Ideaspace Foundation, the investment arms of Globe Telecom and Smart Communications, respectively. They are the country’s biggest telecommunications companies.
“In the Philippines more people have a Facebook account than a bank account,” Coins CEO Ron Hose said.
“We’d like to make access to financial services as easy and approachable as getting a Facebook account,” he quickly added.
Coins is a mobile-first, branchless, blockchain-based platform providing consumers with direct access to basic financial services, such as remittance, bills payment and mobile airtime.
Founded in 2014, Coins has partnered with several local and international banks, financial institutions and so-called last-mile retail outlets. It owns a network spanning over 22,000 cash disbursement and collection locations in the Philippines alone.
“We are very excited to have such a great network of partners behind us who share our vision of increasing financial inclusion. In the coming months, we will continue to build new partnerships with banks, financial institutions and retailers to connect customers across Southeast Asia with best-in-class financial services,” Coins Chief Technology Officer and co-founder Runar Petursson said.
As of 2015, more than 60 percent of Southeast Asia’s population of 600 million remains unbanked and less than 5 percent owns a credit card.
Meanwhile, mobile Internet penetration is rapidly increasing and providing millions of people access online every month. Coins has capitalized on this technological shift by delivering everyday financial services through its mobile platform. To date, the company has signed up over 500,000 users.
The blockchain technology, the public ledger of all bitcoin transactions that have ever been executed, has enabled Coins to connect its services to partners with presence in over 40 countries, and to offer instant, low-cost settlement of cross-border payments and remittances.
For overseas workers who currently pay fees of 6 percent to 8 percent to send funds through remittance centers, Coins services translate to savings of up to 80 percent in fees.
“Coins is collaborating with key ecosystem players to architect a new financial and payment infrastructure in Southeast Asia,” said Ganesh Rengaswamy, partner at US-based Quona Capital.
“Its innovative technology and use of blockchain allow Coins to enable digital access, cut costs and improve the quality of financial services for the unbanked and underserved across Southeast Asia. We are excited to support this mission.”
The funding for Coins was led by Accion Frontier Inclusion Fund, which is managed by Quona. Other supporters also include a number of notable financial-technology investors, such as Innovation Endeavors, Pantera Capital, Digital Currency Group, Wavemaker Labs, Global Brain, BeeNext and Rebright Partners.