Ex-Grab Executive lands Funding For Book-keeping App In The Philippines


Lista, an MSME book-keeping App, raised an oversubscribed round from 1982 Ventures, East Ventures, Saison Capital, Alternate Ventures, Monde Nissin Family Ventures’ Willy Arifin and prominent angel investors.

Since its launch in September, Lista has helped collect close to USD $1.5 million in receivables of MSMEs all over the Philippines.

Through its financial inclusion app, they offer Filipinos a free and secure way of managing finances such as tracking debts, recording transactions, and even issuing invoices.

Lista was founded by Aaron Villegas, an experienced entrepreneur with product experience, and Khriz Lim, a former Grab executive that led GrabFood’s expansion into the region.

Aaron Villegas, co-founder of Lista says, “Helping Philippine MSMEs was advocacy close to my heart. Growing up, I saw the challenges my family endured in running a sari-sari store (community store).”

“I spent almost a year just talking to various MSMEs in the province and trying different ideas to help them grow. And that’s when I realized that the first thing to do to really help them grow is through digitization and replacing pen and paper with easy-to-use tecAs the pandemic struck early last year, digitization of business processes proved to be pivotal in ensuring the continuity of business operations.

Micro, small and medium enterprises or MSMEs were among the most affected during the prolonged quarantines – 74% of these businesses halted operations due to the lockdowns according to the country’s Department of Trade and Industry.”

MSMEs are vital to the Philippine economy as they comprise about 99.51% of business establishments in the country and employ around 63% of the country’s workforce, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)

Khriz Lim, former Grab executive and co-founder of Lista stated, “MSMEs are the backbone of the Philippine economy and it’s time we stop leaving them behind. Through this app, we want to revolutionize the way MSMEs operate and provide them with a reliable digital partner for small businesses in the country.”

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