Higala bags $2.8-M to scale digital payments
Damarillo said another funding round will follow after the July launch to support further expansion as more banks adopt its technology.
Higala CEO Winston Damarillo (left) and Lito Villanueva, RCBC executive vice president and chief innovation and inclusion officer and FinTech Alliance PH chairman (right), lead a media briefing to announce their plans, including new funding to support the launch of a new banking platform.
Photograph by Maria Romero for the Daily Tribune.
Higala, the country’s first inclusive instant payment system, has extended its seed funding round to $2.8 million with fresh investments from Talino Venture Studios and Singapore-based venture capital firm 1982 Ventures.
At a media briefing on Tuesday, Higala CEO Winston Damarillo said the additional funding will support the mid-July launch of its platform banking system, which aims to expand digital payment access for smaller financial institutions.
The platform banking system will enable rural banks, thrift banks, and other financial institutions to offer digital payment services and participate in instant payment networks.
“This funding milestone of Higala will greatly benefit its robust ecosystem, which now includes an instant payment system, a platform bank, and an extensive network of collaborators committed to improving financial system resilience and accelerating the adoption of digital banking,” Damarillo said.
Damarillo said another funding round will follow after the July launch to support further expansion as more banks adopt its technology.
Higala has been expanding financial access by connecting various banks and electronic money issuers to its network, lowering real-time payment costs, and reducing entry barriers.
Recently, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) partnered with Higala to provide core technology for SynerFi, an open payments platform that gives smaller financial institutions access to digital payments.
“This is the realization of BSP’s open finance roadmap initially focusing on open payments use cases, making digital transactions more seamless and frictionless,” said Lito Villanueva, RCBC executive vice president and chief innovation and inclusion officer and FinTech Alliance PH chairman.
Higala’s network includes the initial 40 participants in RCBC’s SynerFi service and several rural banks under the RCBC ATMGo network, such as Rizal Microbank, Guagua Rural Bank, SNR Rural Bank, and Rural Bank of Cadiz.
Powered by Mojaloop technology—an open-source instant payment system backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—Higala continues to collaborate with RCBC, Xendit, FinTech Alliance PH, and the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines.