PayMongo vs Maya Business (Philippines)

PayMongo

B

PayMongo is a Philippine online payments company, launched in June 2019 by Francis Plaza, Luis Sia and Jaime Hing III as the first Filipino-owned fintech to go through Y Combinator, and headquartered in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. It lets a business accept cards, GCash, Maya, GrabPay, ShopeePay, QR Ph, direct online banking and BillEase pay-later through one account, via payment links, hosted checkout, e-commerce plugins, an API and a printed in-store QR Ph code. Stripe led its US$12 million Series A in 2020 and was among its seed investors, but Stripe is an investor, not the owner: PayMongo is independent and run since February 2023 by chief executive Jojo Malolos, who took over from an interim chief executive after the founders left during a 2022 leadership upheaval, and who says the company has been net-income positive since November 2025. Merchants sign PayMongo's own Terms of Use with PayMongo Philippines, Inc., a BSP-registered operator of payment systems, and PayMongo Payments, Inc., a BSP-supervised e-money issuer that runs the PayMongo Wallet payouts land in. As of September 2026 the published rates, all before 12% VAT, are 3.125% + ₱13.39 for domestic cards, 4.02% + ₱13.39 for international cards, 1.34% for QR Ph, 2.23% for GCash and 1.70% to 1.96% for other wallets, with no setup or monthly fee. The trade-offs are slow default payouts (weekly, with cards clearing in three banking days), no card terminal or Tap to Pay, and terms that let PayMongo suspend accounts without notice and withhold settlement over pending or anticipated chargebacks.

Maya Business

B-

Maya Business is the merchant arm of Maya, the Philippine fintech that launched as PayMaya in 2015 and rebranded in 2022. The contracting company, Maya Philippines, Inc. (formerly PayMaya Philippines, Inc.), signs the merchant agreement itself and describes itself as licensed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to acquire merchants. The BSP lists it as a registered operator of payment systems. Maya sells card terminals, Tap to Phone on Android, online checkout, payment links, digital invoices and static QR codes, all quoted from one published rate card. As of November 2026, the published starting rates are 3.50% for Visa, Mastercard, JCB and Amex in-store, and 3.50% + ₱10 for the same cards online. QR Ph and Maya QR cost 1.0%, GCash 2%, ShopeePay 1.85% and WeChat Pay 1.75%. The Maya Terminal costs ₱949 a month. Terminal sales settle the next banking day, and Maya advertises T+1 settlement for Checkout. Larger merchants can negotiate custom packages. Maya's own figures put it past one million registered formal businesses in 2024. Its standard merchant agreement runs for a year and renews automatically, needs 60 days' written notice to end, carries a penalty for leaving in the first year, and lets Maya change the rate during the term and require a security deposit equal to 10% of projected monthly volume, which it can later raise. Maya Bank, Inc., a separate digital bank, provides the business deposit account that some settlements land in.