Ascend Money, which operates TrueMoney Philippines, has become a ‘unicorn’
The foundations for TrueMoney’s future success in the Philippines have been strengthened with the completion of the recent funding for Ascend Money. Ascend Money, which operates TrueMoney Philippines, has managed to become a ‘unicorn’, a term dedicated to startups valued at more than $1 Billion.
The Ascend Money flagship service “TrueMoney Wallet” is a leading e-wallet platform in Thailand with more than 20 million domestic users and recorded over 2.2 billion transactions in 2020 worth $14 billion. TrueMoney also continues to strengthen its global operations across six countries — Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, and the Philippines and has secured more than 50 million users by the end of 2020.
In September 2021, Ascend Money, which is a startup under Thailand’s biggest agribusiness conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group (CP Group), has become Thailand’s first financial technology (fintech) unicorn after its latest funding.
US investment firm Bow Wave Capital Management LP joined CP Group and Jack Ma’s Ant Group Co. in the USD 150 million financing round, Ascend Money said Monday. This funding drove the company’s valuation to USD 1.5 billion.
The company will use the fresh capital to improve its mobile payments application TrueMoney Wallet, including expanding digital financial services and sharing the experience and expertise it has gained running the e-wallet platform across South-East Asia, starting with launching the TrueMoney Wallet in the Philippines.
Apart from e-wallet, TrueMoney is also an agent-based payment and remittance service provider. TrueMoney agents in the Philippines are local entrepreneurs who earn additional income by becoming agents to provide services like bills payment, phone top-up and domestic and cross-border remittance services.
TrueMoney Philippines is one of the first companies granted by BSP with an EMI license in 2016. With an existing 20,000 agent network nationwide, the TrueMoney Wallet will provide a new platform to introduce a new generation of products and services to the Filipino.