Five Filipinos have made the cut in the Forbes’ 2020 edition of the “30 Under 30 Asia” list!
Now in its 5th year, Forbes Asia features 300 young innovative leaders, entrepreneurs and change-makers across Asia, all under the age of 30, “who are challenging conventional wisdom and rewriting the rules for the next generation.”
“This year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list-makers inspire optimism in what is promising to be a tough year ahead. They are a resilient and energetic bunch who are facing challenges head-on and actively working for a future that matches their aspirations,” said Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia Editor Rana Wehbe.
From a pool of over 3,500 nominations across Asia, the annual list highlights 30 game-changers in 10 categories who are “who are ready and equipped to adapt to the future may hold.” The complete list can be found at www.forbes.com/philippines.
Moreover, 5 Filipino individuals join the roster of disruptors who hail from different industries:
1. Francis Plaza
After founding PayMongo in 2019, Francis Plaza has since grown the startup into a rising star in digital payment processing for businesses. To date, the company has raised $2.7 million in seed funding from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, San Francisco-based VC firm Founders Fund and fintech unicorn Stripe.
In a nutshell, PayMongo is a payments processing platform for businesses that efficiently manages the users’ payments from multiple channels. The platform provides businesses with seamless integration of adding payments into their website or app.
At 16, Plaza already graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a bachelor’s degree in Computer science and Engineering. After he graduated, he was a Software Engineer at Oracle Corporation as his day-job and was the co-founder/ Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the online marketplace, Muber. His passion for tech and entrepreneurship is remarkable despite essentially working two full-time jobs.
In PayMongo’s Facebook page, the company celebrated their CEO’s recognition and wrote, “True to the charge of this year’s Under 30 class, Francis and the entire PayMongo team is working hard in building the modern financial infrastructure to influence how money flows in Asia’s economy.”
