Ventaja International Corporation is a full-owned subsidiary of Advantage Products Corporation (APC). APC started operations in December 1997 as a distributor of prepaid cards. In early 2001, APC made a tough strategic decision to exit the physical phonecard business, shutdown its nationwide distribution operation, and shift entirely to electronic delivery of cards/PINs. The shift was costly, and moving forward was difficult because the company was introducing distribution technologies-vending machines, bank ATMs, and electronic pins on vouchers—that were new to the market. APC partnered with established companies such as Metrobank, Equitable PCIBank, Bancnet, Shell, Caltex, and Robinson’s in its pioneering efforts..

In the 2nd half of 2003, APC began exporting phonecards targeting OFWs overseas. Seeing the vast opportunity abroad, and knowing that its technologies were ideal for overseas clients, APC set-up Ventaja in March 2004 to target OFWs. Ventaja, a PEZA-accredited company, has enjoyed considerable success and now accounts for practically all of APC’s business.

In 2007, Ventaja launched: Pinoy Pasaload, a universal reload card. OFWs can use this card to load any Philippine cellular phone from their foreign cellular phone by simply texting a PIN to Ventaja’s server. It also expanded its product line to include remittances i.e, Smart Padala and SSS contributions. SSS On Line is a web-based portal that remittance outlets can use to record SSS contributions from OFWs. This service eliminates all paperwork and shortens the posting of contributions from 6 months to just 5 days.

Over the years, Ventaja established a presence in cities with large concentrations of Filipinos. Ventaja has distributors or partners in the following countries: Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Italy, UK, Spain, Switzerland, Netherlands, Israel, UAE, Saudi Arabia, USA, and Australia.

In 2009, Ventaja produced P335M in revenues and continues to lay the groundwork for future growth. In 2010, Ventaja launched Pag-Ibig On Line, similar to SSS On Line, a system that remittance outlets can use to record Pag-Ibig contributions from OFWs.

Vincent D. Grey is APC’s and Ventaja’s founding partner and President. Mr. Grey was first exposed to telecoms at Islacom where he launched and ran the cellular business (1995-1997). As one of the top executives in the company, Mr. Grey was instrumental in securing Deutsche Telecoms’ investment in Islacom. After the deal was completed, Mr. Grey left Islacom to join the Marsman-Drysdale Group where he looked after the conglomerate’s telecom/media investments (minority stakes in RCPI, Pocketbell, and Sky Cable), and ran the trunk radio business (Mobilcom), too. It was while he was at Marsman-Drysdale that Mr. Grey set-up APC together with key members of his management team from Islacom.

Mr. Grey lived and worked overseas for several years. Mr. Grey pursued a career in finance for FMC Corp., a multinational conglomerate with over 20,000 employees and operations in 60 countries. He first worked at FMC’s Chicago headquarters in 1990 then transferred to FMC Foret, the Spanish subsidiary in Barcelona (1991-1994).

Mr. Grey has an MBA (1990) from the Tuck School at Dartmouth—an Ivy League school based in Hanover, New Hampshire, USA. He completed his undergraduate studies at the Ateneo de Manila in 1986 with a degree in BS Management (Honors Program).