Xurpas sizzled in its market debut in the Philippine Stock Exchange. (Photo : TechinAsia)
Xurpas Inc, the largest Philippine information technology company, aims to be the Tencent Holdings Ltd. of Southeast Asia. Tencent is now one of the largest Internet companies in the world, competing with Amazon, Google and eBay.
In an interview with Nix Nolledo, the company’s president, media said that Xurpas wants to create the largest consumer tech company in the continent.
“That’s really our ambition. We want to be a Tencent,” Nolledo said.
Nolledo shared that their new markets will include Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Bangladesh. The Makari-based company is targeting markets where people don’t typically have credit cards and use prepaid loads.
At the moment, Xurpas is in talks for more acquisitions in the region after investing in computer-gaming businesses in Singapore and Indonesia.
The company was founded by three friends back in 2001 with 62,500 pesos ($1,382) and computers given by their parents.
Since its initial stock sale in December, it has already invested in five companies. The stock has tripled since its debut, the best performer among newly traded shares in the Philippines in 2014.
Xurpas added to the gain Wednesday, rising 1.2 percent to 12.14 pesos as of 10:24 a.m. in Manila trading, set for its highest close in more than five months.
Xurpas’s acquisitions included about a fifth of Altitude Games Pte., the Singapore developer of the “Run Run Super V” game featuring a sentai hero, and almost a third of tournament game platform MatchMe Pte., also based in the city-state.
In May, Xurpas made its first investment outside Asia through a nearly $1-million infusion in startup Quick.ly, part of venture capital Idealab.
“Our dream more than anything is to put the Philippines on the world technology map,” said Xurpas managing director Raymond Racaza. “Tencent is probably the closest to our model," he added.
