Ant Group—backed by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba—has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Singapore-based fintech company 2C2P as the operator of e-wallet Alipay expands further into Southeast Asia. This partnership is a win-win collaboration built on strengths and the shared vision to accelerate the digital transformation for businesses through innovation and best-in-class payments solutions. Ant—whose $35 billion initial public offering in late 2020 has been delayed amid a regulatory crackdown in China—has been expanding across Southeast Asia in recent years, acquiring stakes in e-wallet companies including Indonesia’s Dana, Malaysia’s TNG Digital, Philippines’ GCash, Thailand’s Ascend Money and Vietnam’s eMonkey.
Through the strategic partnership with Ant, 2C2P said its pool of global and regional merchants inclusive will relate to Alipay+, extending geographical reach to provide more payment options to over one billion consumers globally. The partners didn’t disclose financial details of the transaction. Digital payment adoption has accelerated rapidly in recent years, spurred by the pandemic, with mobile wallet payments widely gaining momentum across Asia.