Higala押注开放支付轨道，有望将菲律宾400家农村银行接入InstaPay

做的是什么生意

Higala provides real-time payment infrastructure for rural banks and microfinance institutions in the Philippines: it built the SynerFi rail to connect small and medium-sized banks to InstaPay, and offers core banking systems, license sponsorship, and fund management tools alongside it.

启动资金：Co-founded and seed-invested in April 2024 by Talino Venture Studios and Chemonics International; in March 2025 the seed round expanded to $2.8M, and in December it closed at $4M.

起因

Serial entrepreneur Winston Damarillo (his 14th company) partnered with Chemonics and launched Higala in Manila in April 2024, positioned as the Philippines' first 'inclusive instant payment system'; it uses the Mojaloop open-source payment framework, the first deployment of Mojaloop in Asia, and received public support from the central bank BSP.

经过

In November 2024, it partnered with RCBC to let rural banks and microfinance institutions connect to InstaPay through SynerFi; in April 2025, DigFin reported that Higala would become the second operator of InstaPay (previously only BankNet), charging 75 centavos per transaction and a 1.5% merchant discount rate, only half that of card networks; in July 2025, the first 8 rural banks went live on SynerFi; in December 2025, the seed round expanded from a $2.8M target to close at $4M.

结果

Still running: as of the end of 2025, 8 rural banks had connected to SynerFi, the seed round closed at $4M, and Damarillo said the model can be replicated across Southeast Asia; the next step is to obtain central bank approval to formally operate a second rail on InstaPay, with a long-term plan for an IPO.

可借鉴之处

避免与巨头正面竞争；服务被排斥的用户。Higala利用现有轨道，填补小银行缺口，无需正面较量即可规模化。