Jamey Butcher, Chairman of Higala and President and CEO of Chemonics International
MANILA, PHILIPPINES [TAC] – Inclusive banking infrastructure start-up Higala has closed its US$4 million seed round and is now preparing to roll out a nationwide payments platform that promises to reshape how millions of Filipinos access digital financial services.
The Philippines has seen a surge in digital finance innovation—from the rollout of the national QR standard, QR Ph, to the arrival of Apple Pay and Google Pay—but gaps in inclusion remain stark.
High transaction costs, unreliable services and limited interoperability continue to affect rural customers and smaller financial institutions. The entire ecosystem also depends on a single national switch, a structural weakness that complicates resilience and competition.
Higala aims to change that. Founded through a partnership between Chemonics International and Talino Venture Studios, the company has built a new open-source payments switch based on ISO20022 standards and Mojaloop’s globally recognised technology.
The platform is designed to provide seamless, real-time, low-cost transactions across banks, cooperatives, microfinance institutions and e-wallets, creating a more inclusive and interoperable payments system that can reach communities historically excluded from the digital economy.
Chemonics’ role has been central to the project’s early traction. Drawing on its decades of experience driving financial inclusion and market-systems reform, the global development firm has helped design the architecture, ensure interoperability standards, and position the platform for scale. Industry experts say this blend of development expertise and fintech agility is now powering Higala’s acceleration.
“We believe inclusive innovation is the key to solving the world’s toughest challenges,” said Jamey Butcher, CEO of Chemonics International and chair of Higala. “Our partnership allows us to take tech-enabled solutions further, faster, combining strong local leadership with scalable infrastructure to create lasting impact.”
“Chemonics knows how to scale systems that work. They bring the data, technology, and operational discipline to reach millions. By pairing that with Talino’s innovation and local market insight, Higala is proving that inclusive financial infrastructure can be built, and scaled, anywhere.”
Expanding Banking Partnerships
Since completing the seed round, Higala has struck partnerships with several leading universal banks, with plans to expand to more than 40 in the months ahead. These institutions, or ‘Platform Banks’, act as gateways for thousands of rural and thrift banks to connect to instant digital payments via Higala’s services.
The company has already onboarded its first cohort of eight rural banks, giving consumers in underserved regions access to secure, real-time digital transactions for the first time. Higala’s low-cost digital banking platform enables smaller institutions to deploy modern services quickly and with minimal investment. This shift could reduce transaction costs by up to 60 percent and eventually reach an estimated 50 million unbanked or underbanked Filipinos.
Higala has also launched a new core banking solution aimed at accelerating the modernisation of smaller financial institutions, another area where Chemonics’ technical and operational expertise has helped shape design and implementation.
Model for Global Replication
With early success in the Philippines, Higala is now in exploratory discussions to replicate its model in Southeast Asia and Latin America, where similar infrastructure gaps constrain financial inclusion.
“What makes Higala stand out is how quickly our model can scale,” said Winston Damarillo, CEO of Higala. “We’ve proven it works in the Philippines and we know it can be replicated across Southeast Asia. The demand for inclusive, interoperable payment systems is huge, and we’re moving fast to meet it.”
Industry observers note that the Higala–Chemonics partnership reflects a new model of collaboration, one that blends development objectives with commercially viable technology solutions.
As the Philippines continues modernising its payments landscape, Higala’s open architecture and inclusive design could become a foundational layer in the country’s financial infrastructure. With Chemonics’ global footprint and long-running expertise in financial-sector strengthening, the company is also well placed to influence how similar systems are built in other emerging markets.
By combining open-source technology, strong local partnerships and a mission-first approach, Higala and Chemonics are betting that the future of digital finance in emerging economies will be defined not just by innovation, but by inclusion.
