Martha Sazon: Financially Empowering the Philippines

Martha Sazon is revolutionising the modern banking world in the Philippines.

As President and CEO of Mynt, the company behind GCash, Martha specialises in business transformation, turn-around, innovation strategy and customer insight. Her digital knowledge and prowess in innovation has helped GCash become one of the leading mobile wallet and financial services providers in the Philippines.

Now a household name, GCash holds more than 81 million active users and 2.5 million sellers and merchants across the country. It continues to expand its services and user base, offering mobile payments, remittances, savings accounts and investments. 

Under Martha’s leadership, GCash is providing access to financial services for millions of Filipinos, including those without traditional bank accounts.

“Financial freedom goes beyond being just able to cover living expenses from month to month. You have to be able to save and invest so that you are not living worrying about the future,” Sazon says in an interview with Vogue. 

“Through financial services, there is a way to grow and protect your wealth. We hope to show Filipinos that this is all possible with GCash.”

Democratising financial services

Martha holds more than 20 years of experience across a broad range of industries, including telecommunications and pharmaceuticals. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of the Philippines, where she graduated cum laude. 

Prior to joining GCash, Martha spent nearly 12 years working in telecommunications at Global Telecom, rising to become the company’s SVP. She was successful in overseeing strategies across sales, marketing, customer experience and business intelligence and transformation. Her work here also saw her pioneer many breakthroughs for a range of products at the company.

Martha’s leadership was able to double revenues and transform the organisation’s broadband offerings, working within her team to improve portfolio innovation and complete a P&L overhaul.

Her move to Mynt (GCash) in 2020 coincided with the global COVID-19 pandemic, a time where mobile payments and digital finance boomed. Particularly in the Philippines, there was an increased need for contactless and digital financial services, causing organisations like GCash to seize a gap in the market.
The app now offers solutions that suit a broad range of financial needs. Martha has overseen the company during this time and turned it into an opportunity for millions of users to make purchases and earn money.

This has led GCash app to surpass a US$5bn valuation (as of August 2024), in addition to officially being the leading Filipino financial super app. This is only empowering Martha to continue powering ahead with fintech transformations.

“People needed a contactless way to pay for their essentials and GCash provided a safe, easy and secure mode of payment,” Martha says. “The quarantine resulted in massive unemployment and Filipinos turned to online means like Viber, Facebook and Instagram selling groups to make a living.”

Using fintech to financially empower communities

Martha’s work with GCash led to her achieving several awards, including CEO of the Year at the IDC Future Enterprise Awards in the Philippines in 2021. This ultimately highlights how serving the underserved is what drives GCash forward in its mission. 

Within the Philippines, the app has now become completely integrated into everyday life. For Martha this doesn’t just enable easier money exchanges, but is a true path to empowering people towards financial freedom.

As Martha explains in an interview with Tatler: “As long as there are Filipinos who have unmet needs or aren’t able to access financial services, we will always have innovations to work on.”

In addition to helping boost the percentage of banked people within the Philippines, Martha’s pioneering efforts with GCash has also helped Filipina women become more financially empowered. With the app’s loans service, women – who make up more than half of GCash users – are able to explore greater business opportunities and be financially independent.

“This is critical in a country that has long been financially excluded,” Martha continues. “Having access to financial services means Filipinos have access to opportunities to improve their lives and those of their families. 

“Filipinos deserve to have that and so much more.”

To read the full story in the magazine click HERE ​​​​​​​

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