San Francisco-based FinTech startup PayJoy has secured $6 million of investment in a new funding round, with the additional capital enabling the firm to expand internationally throughout Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

The investment was led by Santander InnoVentures and ITOCHU Corporation, one of the largest Japanese general trading companies. Other strategic partners joined from Brazil, Nigeria, Mexico, China, Vietnam, and Europe.

This investment brings PayJoy’s total equity and debt financing to $30 million since the firm was founded in 2015. PayJoy focuses on enabling the purchase of high-end smartphones for underbanked populations.

PayJoy CEO Doug Ricket, said: “PayJoy's approach is to partner with the major players in the mobile industry to achieve scale. These strategic investors have offered to introduce PayJoy through their long-standing deep regional business networks, which I believe will be tremendously beneficial in accelerating our business partnerships and getting millions of customers onto smartphones in 2018.”

Manuel Silva, head of investments at Santander InnoVentures, added: “Investing in PayJoy shows Santander InnoVentures’s constant search for great teams pushing the boundaries of FinTech. It also shows our increasing interest in models that are relevant to emerging markets and the underbanked.

“PayJoy’s mission is to help the less privileged join the digital economy and climb the economic ladder. PayJoy rethinks a basic financial service through the lens of innovation, technology, and data, and brings a simple and fair new offering to those who need it the most. We are impressed by PayJoy’s passion and vision and are thrilled to support them in their next chapter.”

Share Story: