Fintech startup in the Philippines aims for Vietnam market in 2023

DNHN - Advance of the Philippines has successfully raised $16 million in funding. Advance announced that it will expand into the Vietnamese market with the new funding.

Advance, a Philippine fintech company, raised $16 million in a pre-Series A funding round led by Do Ventures (an early-stage venture capital fund that focuses on technology companies in the Philippines). Southeast Asia and Vietnam) and Lendable (supportive investor for fintech companies in emerging markets).

Existing investors like Wavemaker Partners, Next Billion Ventures, Integrity Partners, and Accion Venture Lab are joined by new investors Phoenix Holdings, Kaya Founders, Foxmont Capital, Oyster Ventures, and Crossocean Ventures.

Advance has provided salary advances and other financial services to disadvantaged employees in the Philippines in partnership with more than 200 companies in the country since its inception in 2018.

Advance has recently expanded its offering to include financial healthcare and education products from its business partners in addition to additional credit solutions.

Advance's co-founder and chief executive officer, Jaime de los Angeles, stated that the fundraising success bolsters the organization's mission to make financial services fair and accessible. especially for employees who are underserved."

Ruoyun Yang, Lendable's Asia director, stated, "We are confident in Advance's scalability and that our support will promote employee well-being and income stability in the Philippines and Southeast Asia as a whole."

Advance specializes in providing financial services, such as salary advances, to disadvantaged workers, particularly those without bank accounts. With the new capital, Advance has announced that it will expand to Vietnam while introducing more innovative financial products and offering its services to more partners in the Philippines.

Immediately after successfully raising $16 million, startup Advance announced the acquisition of employee benefits and engagement platform BravoHR, a Vietnam-based HR startup.

BravoHR was founded in August of 2018, with an office located on the 9th floor of the HM Tower, 412 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, Ward 5, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City. In Ho Chi Minh City, the same building where Phoenix Holdings is located has just invested in the Advance startup.

Through the use of technology, the BravoHR system can facilitate internal communication, implement reward programs, engage employees, retain talent, and manage fixed and flexible employee benefits.

From this location, employees can receive company updates directly on their phones, recognize and encourage good employees by sending thank you messages based on their contributions or achievements, participate in online activities on their phones, and receive gifts.

The system can assist business leaders with online checks, surveys, internal communications, and benefits management.

BravoHR digitizes the welfare budget and enables management to use it to reward employees on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis, as well as giving each employee the ability to select benefits such as phone cards and gas allowances as an e-voucher on the app.

BravoHR has become a partner of large enterprises such as McDonald's Vietnam, Philip Morris, 7-Eleven, PNJ Watch, e-commerce company OnPoint, Idocean trading company, Chubb insurance company, and Talentnet Talent Connection Joint Stock Company due to its high applicability.

With the acquisition of BravoHR, Startup Advance is able to rapidly approach Vietnamese businesses with the incredibly popular salary structure.

Since 2018, Advance has provided payroll and other financial services to workers in the Philippines, where nearly half of the population still lacks a bank account. Through the Advance app, workers can get a portion of their pay in advance in seconds, whenever they need it.

More recently, the company has developed additional credit solutions as well as financial health and education products to meet the needs of business partners. In less than five years, the company has earned the trust of more than 200 local companies, including Sitel Philippines, Inspiro, Cebuana Lhuillier, and ePerformax.

Phuong Linh (t/h)