Philippines-based digital commerce and payment startup Ayannah has announced today that it has raised US$1 million as part of its Series A round from Singapore-based fintech VC Life.SREDA, Silicon Valley VC 500 Startups, London-based fintech VC Blue Compass and other investors.

Fintech startups for the unbanked are seeing a boom in Asia, with 490 million in the region still lacking a bank account. Fintech services like Indonesia’s Coda Payments and Vietnam’s 1Pay tackles this pain-point by letting users pay for bills and services via SMS, cash at convenience stores or prepaid cards. In the Philippines, digital commerce and payment startup Ayannah offers a host of digital financial services that focus on serving the needs of the 100 million resident Filipinos as well as the 12 million overseas Filipinos around the world.

As Southeast Asian merchants, startups and consumers increasingly adopt mobile payment systems, banking executives need to evaluate and integrate mobile solutions or risk being left behind, says a recent report published by Forrester Research. Furthermore, the report says if banks do not move quickly, they risk becoming irrelevant, surrendering customer relationships and missing out on key consumer data.

Fintech is one of the darlings of the startup world right now. VCs and investors are tripping over themselves to back startups with new and innovative ideas in the financial technology space.