Manila, Philippines – Aiming to drive the expansion of online businesses, financial services firm GCash has recently announced its partnership with Lazada Philippines through its lending subsidiary Fuse. This collaboration builds on the company’s commitment to providing more opportunities for Filipino entrepreneurs in the digital retail space.
For this initiative, Fuse is going to be Lazada’s first partner to fully integrate a seller loan product into the Lazada Philippines Seller Centre app.
This effort extends the company’s reach to micro, small, and medium enterprises beyond the GCash platform and equips Lazada with the ability to offer cash loans to eligible platform sellers.
Furthermore, it also aligns with the digital roadmap of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, which seeks to enhance the current digital payments landscape and digital financial inclusion by shifting 50% of retail transaction volumes in the country to digital.
Earlier this year, the two had already initiated the programme with a selected group of sellers and are now planning to expand their user base on the e-commerce platform in the coming months.
Following the endeavour, Anthony Isidro, lending president and chief executive officer at Fuse, said, “As we continue to grow our presence in the micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) sector, which is the backbone of the Philippine economy, we are glad to be Lazada Philippines’ entrusted partner in providing their extensive network of small business owners with cash loans that are easier, safer, and more convenient.”
Benjamin Ng, head of seller financing at Lazada, also commented, “We’re excited to provide Lazada Seller Loans together with Fuse Lending, and we believe this offering will give Filipino entrepreneurs more opportunities to thrive in the digital retail space. This partnership represents an important step in our shared mission: contributing towards Sustainable Development Goal 17, expanding financial access to Filipino MSMEs, and accelerating progress in the Philippines.”
This partnership was announced at a launch ceremony in Bonifacio Global City, attended by Anthony Isidro, lending president and CEO at Fuse; Baby Aquino, chief strategy and product officer at Fuse; Kevin Yu, product head at GLoan; and Benjamin Ng, head of seller financing at Lazada.