“Can a Philippine e-wallet evolve into the country's dominant digital bank and MSME financial OS, in a market still dominated by GCash?”
Started in 2000 as Smart Money — the world's first phone-linked Mastercard. Rebranded as PayMaya in 2016 to position as a consumer e-wallet competing with GCash. The decisive pivot came in 2022 when parent Voyager Innovations rolled out a BSP-licensed digital bank (Maya Bank), consolidated the brand to 'Maya', and raised $210M at $1.4B to fund a full neobank build-out — savings, credit, crypto, MSME lending, and a merchant acquiring stack — making Maya one of two scaled digital-banking players in the Philippines alongside GCash.
Maya discloses Maya Bank, Inc. (in-house) as its banking provider, according to the Embedded Finance Index 2026.
Maya does not disclose a bank charter of its own; its banking services are provided through Maya Bank, Inc. (in-house).
Maya processes payments through Maya Checkout (self-operated), Maya Payments Platform (self-operated), Maya Terminal (self-operated), Maya Invoice (self-operated), Maya Payment Links (self-operated) and Maya QRPh (self-operated).
Maya's cards are issued through Maya Philippines, Inc. (in-house).
Maya's lending and capital products are provided by Maya Bank, Inc. (in-house).
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 5 layers in Maya's stack: Payments / PSP (Maya Checkout (self-operated), Maya Payments Platform (self-operated), Maya Terminal (self-operated), Maya Invoice (self-operated) and 2 others); Banking / BaaS (Maya Bank, Inc. (in-house)); Card issuing (Maya Philippines, Inc. (in-house)); Lending (Maya Bank, Inc. (in-house), Maya Advance (up to ₱350K, 30-90 days), Maya Flexi Loan (revolving credit up to ₱2M), Maya Suki Credit (up to ₱250K supplier BNPL, 30 days) and 1 other); Sponsor bank (Maya Bank, Inc. (in-house)).
Maya is founded in 2013 and headquartered in Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines.
Maya has raised $210M+ (Series disclosed) in total (latest round: $210M (2022); valuation: $1.4B (2022)).
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Maya and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.