Manny Pacquiao has been busy since hanging up his boxing gloves, having embarked on a career as a senator and, now, as the founder of payments company PacPay.
Speaking with the BBC, Pacquiao said that the company would provide fast and safe cross-border transactions. He added that the company would first launch in his native the Philippines and then expand to Singapore and the rest of Asia. The venture is said to be a payments platform for social media influencers like Pacquiao himself.
“People are always curious to find out what I am getting into,” Mr Pacquiao told the BBC.
“And because of my latest involvement with this [FinTech] venture, a lot of my fellow athletes, global influencers and other entrepreneurs have expressed their interest and potential involvement in the platform.”
Although, this is not the first time Pacquiao has dipped his toes in the FinTech industry. In September last year we reported that he would launch his own cryptocurrency, the PAC Coin.
Although, not everyone was happy about his push into the cryptocurrency sector. Danny Scott, CEO of CoinCorner, the cryptocurrency exchange, said that ?celebrities [releasing] their own cryptocurrencies for the purpose of selling merchandise and allowing fans to connect with them is wrong on so many different [levels.]p>
He added, ?In the vague news stories around PAC, it explained that the purpose of the token is to help Pacquioa to connect to his fans and allow them to purchase his merchandise,he continued. ?That great, but what wrong with using social media [channels like] Twitter, YouTube and Instagram? These work pretty well for most celebrities, so why should fans have to buy PAC tokens to interact with their idol, Manny? What problem is this solving? Seems to be creating a problem rather than solving one.p>
Pacquiao is hardly the only celebrity to invest in FinTech. For instance, singer Akon has launched a cryptocurrency called Akoin with the sole purpose of creating what he describes as a “real-life Wakanda” in Senegal.
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