The archive · Money & Fintech · Strategic decision · 2021–2026
Maya: PayMaya's wallet-to-bank bet reaches first full-year profit
Voyager rebranded PayMaya as Maya in April 2022 with a licensed bank inside; end-2025: 10.7M bank customers, ₱68B deposits, first full-year profit.
Maya Group (Maya Bank / PayMaya Philippines)
What the business is
Maya Group runs the Philippines' all-in-one money app (formerly PayMaya): e-wallet payments, payments processing and agent network from the original business, plus Maya Bank's savings, credit and BNPL — all owned by PLDT-led Voyager Innovations.
Starting capital：US$210M round for Voyager Innovations announced 2022-04-11, led by SIG Venture Capital with EDBI and First Pacific, joined by existing investors PLDT, KKR, Tencent and IFC — valuing Voyager at close to US$1.4B, weeks before Maya Bank's public launch.
How it started
Voyager Innovations — backed by PLDT, KKR, Tencent and IFC — had built PayMaya into the Philippines' leading e-wallet, serving 47M registered users by March 2022. Voyager secured one of the country's six BSP digital-banking licenses in September 2021, piloted Maya Bank from March 2022, raised a $210M round in April 2022 at a near-$1.4B valuation, and on April 29, 2022 relaunched the app as Maya with the licensed bank live, bundling savings and credit with the wallet.
What happened
Maya Bank pulled deposits and credit through the existing app and ecosystem, and The Asian Banker later credited it with reaching full-year profitability within two and a half years of launch — one of the few digital banks anywhere to get there that fast. Loans disbursed from 2022 reached ₱256B by end-2025, and the customer base doubled over 2025 to 10.7M bank customers.
How it ended up
First full-year profit: the Maya Group reported ₱1.7B net income for 2025, with ~10.7M bank customers and ~₱68B in deposits at end-2025. Forbes put Maya on its World's Best Banks 2026 list for the fourth straight year, and The Asian Banker ranked it the only Philippine digital bank in the world's top 20.
Background
Maya Group is the Philippines' integrated payments and banking company, born when PLDT-led Voyager Innovations relaunched its PayMaya e-wallet as Maya in April 2022 with a licensed digital bank, Maya Bank, live inside the app. The bet was that the 47M registered users of the wallet — plus its 630,000+ merchant touchpoints and 63,000-agent Smart Padala network — would become depositors and borrowers, making Maya the country's only end-to-end financial platform.
The pieces were assembled before launch day: Voyager won one of six BSP digital-banking licenses in September 2021, piloted the bank from March 2022, and raised $210M in April 2022 at a near-$1.4B valuation to fund it. On April 29, 2022 the app relaunched as Maya with savings and credit products alongside the wallet, so every wallet user was a potential bank customer from day one.
The model delivered scale and then profit. The Asian Banker credits Maya Bank with reaching full-year profitability within two and a half years of launch, a pace few digital banks match. By end-2025 the bank had ~10.7M customers (about double the prior year), ~₱68B in deposits, and ₱256B in loans disbursed since 2022, and the wider Maya Group reported ₱1.7B net income for 2025 — its first full year of profit.
Recognition followed the numbers: Forbes' World's Best Banks 2026 list included Maya for a fourth straight year, and The Asian Banker ranked it the only Philippine digital bank in its global top 20. The remaining question is whether Maya can keep converting wallet users into deeper credit and investment relationships as GCash, GoTyme and incumbents compete for the same underbanked market.
What has to be true
- Existing rails beat greenfield: launching a bank inside a wallet with 47M registered users and 63,000 agent touchpoints avoided the zero-to-one customer problem standalone digital banks face.
- One app, many products: bundling savings, credit and BNPL with payments raised revenue per user and kept distribution costs shared across the ecosystem.
- License came early: one of only six BSP digital-banking licenses gave Voyager a regulated deposits-and-credit moat around its payments business.
- Parent scale and patience: PLDT, KKR, Tencent and IFC supplied capital and distribution, letting Maya grow for two and a half years before needing profit.
- Underserved market depth: with half of Filipino adults unbanked, converting wallet users into first-time bank customers created growth that did not depend on stealing share from incumbents.
What can be applied
A wallet with millions of users can become a bank faster than a bank can win users: Maya layered banking onto PayMaya's rails and reached full-year profit in about two and a half years.
Aftermath
As of 2026-04-16 Maya is scaling profitably: end-2025 figures put bank customers at ~10.7M, deposits at ~₱68B and loans disbursed since 2022 at ₱256B, and the group's ₱1.7B 2025 net income was its first full-year profit. Forbes' World's Best Banks 2026 included Maya for a fourth straight year, and The Asian Banker ranked it the only Philippine digital bank in the global top 20. It still competes with GCash and GoTyme, and the open test is pushing 10.7M bank customers toward higher-margin credit and investment products.
Sources
- Voyager Innovations Raises US$210M to Expand the Financial Services Ecosystem of PayMaya and Maya Bank
- Maya Recognized By Forbes, The Asian Banker
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