Philippines-based digital financial services provider Ayannah, and India-based payments company Electronic Cash and Payment Solutions (“ECAPS”).
Christened Ayannah Global (AG), the new entity aims to provide “affordable and accessible digital financial services” to the growing middle-class in South Asia and Southeast Asia with headquarters in Singapore.
AG will be jointly led by Miguel Perez and Praveen Suri as Co-CEOs.
Choosing Singapore will support AG’s expansion plans into markets, such as India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and soon Vietnam, it said in a press statement. The merged entity also intends to broaden its current product suite towards becoming a B2B digital financial services provider post-merger.
Also Read: Ayannah wants to bring online payments to the “unbanked”
Additionally, AG has announced the appointment of banking veteran Ray Ferguson as Chairman of of the Board.
Ferguson brings in over 30 years of experience across five continents with senior roles in Asia- and the Middle East-arm of Standard Chartered Bank, including roles as CEO in Taiwan, Indonesia, the UAE, the Americas, and Singapore. He had also in the past served as Group Chief Banking Officer at Arab Banking Corporation in Bahrain.
AG has launched Kaya, a digital marketplace connecting middle-class customers and SME entrepreneurs with banks, lenders, and insurers in the Philippines and will launch versions in India, Indonesia, and Vietnam later this year.
Post-merger, the new entity will be launching its Series B fundraising round soon, with a target of US$30-50 million. To date, the group has received capital from Wavemaker Partners, Golden Gate Ventures, and 500 Startups, as well as several family offices across Asia.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the group is also seeing greater demand for its open banking and omni-channel distribution platform, especially from banks, lenders, and insurers who rapidly need to roll out digital services.
Established in 2010, Ayannah is an AI-enabled technology platform that provides financial services to the emerging middle class, with a significant presence across geographies with customers in India, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam. The company claimed that its AI tech is designed to launch a comprehensive range of financial and lifestyle products and services ranging from payments, remittance, insurance, and telemedicine.
Also Read: Digital payments startup Ayannah diving deep into Big Data
Ayannah’s products include PanaloCare, a hospital income insurance plan in partnership with AXA, which supports the insured with a daily supplementary income whenever hospitalised.
Since 2013, Bengaluru-based ECAPS has catered to the needs of domestic migrants and the unbanked populations in India. The company provides services such as domestic money transfers, utility bill payments, recharges and travel ticketing for emerging middle-class consumers in India.
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Picture Credit: Ayannah
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