PLDT acquires Singapore e-commerce portal for $5 M

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.’s (PLDT) digital unit Voyager Innovations Inc. is acquiring Singapore-based e-commerce platform Paywhere Pte Ltd. for $5 million in line with its aim to promote digital commerce in the country.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday, PLDT said Voyager through online shopping discovery platform operator Takatack Pte. Ltd., entered into an agreement for the purchase of the issued share capital of Paywhere for $5 million.

“The acquisition is expected to be completed within the third quarter of 2015, subject to the fulfilment of certain closing conditions,” Ma. Lourdes Rausa-Chan, PLDT senior vice president and corporate secretary said.

Of the amount, the $3 million will be paid upfront at the completion date, while the balance will be payable to certain of the vendors as deferred consideration.

Paywhere is the company behind TackThis!, an e-commerce platform which allows businesses to set up an online shop or website and “tack” such to other sites including Facebook and Blogspot.

TackThis! currently has 30,000 registered users across Southeast Asia.

Voyager has been working with Paywhere in marketing TackThis! in the Philippines since last year.

The acquisition of Paywhere is part of Voyager’s efforts to build up its portfolio of solutions in the areas of e-commerce, payments, and digital content and access to make digital financial services accessible to emerging countries starting with the Philippines.

“We want to reduce the complexities, the technological barriers, and the cost to deliver that comes with bringing a store online. With this acquisition of Paywhere, we are establishing a stronger foothold in existing markets as well as taking the opportunity to expand to new ones,” Orlando Vea, president and chief executive officer of Voyager said.

As only one percent of the one million small and medium enterprises registered in the Philippines have a website and more Filipinos are buying products on the Internet, there is significant opportunity for such businesses to accelerate their growth by going online.

“As more and more people are going online with increasing Internet penetration, going into digital commerce is imperative for businesses.

In other words, having an online store for businesses is not just about presence – it’s about empowerment,” Vea said.

For his part, Dickson Gregory, co-founder and chief executive officer of Paywhere said the transaction with Voyager would allow the startup to get more merchants on the TackThis! platform.

“I look forward to seeing TackThis! scale internationally, much in the same way we’ve seen the platform help entrepreneurs grow their businesses,” he said.

PLDT chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said earlier the company is planning new investments in digital assets given the strong consumer demand for Internet services.

“In the digital space…you’ll see further launches between now and the first quarter of next year,” he said.