A strategic investor with an intrinsic understanding of the fintech sector says Peppermint Innovation’s mobile payments and remittance platform has significant growth potential in many Asian markets.
Smidge Digital Unit Trust’s Trustee Director, Andrew Smith, said Peppermint’s innovative technology was clearly “ahead of the curve” and he believed its current share price was “under-valued”.
“We are extremely excited to be partnering with Peppermint and its innovative non- bank platform going forward,” Mr Smith said.
“Our belief in Peppermint’s value is clearly demonstrated by our commitment to invest $1million at 2 cents per share and then, at Peppermint’s option, to place another $1million at a higher price of 2.3 cents per share or 25 per cent to the five-day volume weighted average price on or before the 31st March 2018.
“We’ve backed Peppermint because it complements another ‘ahead of the curve’ investment that Smidge has with an enterprise data analytics company, and because our unit holders are also significant influencers in several Asian markets and we will be offering Peppermint all of the assistance that we can to help them get to market in those countries.”
Peppermint Innovation Managing Director and CEO Chris Kain said Smidge Digital’s investment in Peppermint at a premium price clearly reflected the company’s current value and future opportunities to create greater value.
Currently, Peppermint operates its mobile bill payment and remittance platform in the Philippines where millions of Filipinos receive their weekly wage in cash but only about 30 per cent of the population actually has a bank account.
Consequently, many Filipinos are forced to physically pay their bills in cash, requiring them to travel long distances across town to ensure all of their household bills are paid.
Peppermint’s innovative mobile payment and remittance platform is ultimately designed to make life easier for Filipinos by offering secure and easily accessible financial services such as money transfers, eload purchases and household bill payment services.
Peppermint Innovation is an Australian company focused on the commercialisation and further development of the Peppermint Platform, a mobile banking, payments and remittance technology designed for banks, mobile money operators, credit card companies and microfinance institutions. It currently operates the Peppermint Platform in the Philippines.
Peppermint has a particular focus in the developing world (starting with the Philippines) and on providing an attractive tool to the unbanked population to access mobile banking and remit money to and from family and others through a system not tied to a particular bank or telephony company.
