Alibaba’s Affiliate Ant Group Acquires Majority Stake In Singapore’s Payments Company 2C2P

Alibaba’s fintech affiliate Ant Group has acquired 2CPC, a Singapore-based payments company making it the latest in Ant Group’s alliance. 2C2P is a company making cross-border payments in Southeast Asia possible, helping enterprises to move money across borders.

Ant Group has been building a global cross-border payments network and to make this possible, it has been either acquiring companies or partnering/investing in third-party companies and fintechs operating in the fintech and payments space.

Per an announcement issued on Monday, Ant Group will form a strategic partnership with 2C2P which will see it become its biggest shareholder. The details and deal for acquisition were, however, not disclosed by either company. The deal will see 2C2P’s network of merchants be integrated with AliPay’s. AliPay is Ant Group’s cross-border payments company.

In a statement, Aung Kyaw – founder and CEO of 2C2P said that “Through this complementary partnership with Ant Group, 2C2P will be connected to a much larger merchant base and be well-positioned to advance our international expansion strategy.” He also mentioned that the partnership will help with extending 2C2P’s current 250 payment options as the partnership will see it include e-wallets and other payment methods.

One would ask why Ant Group is choosing to partner with 2C2P when it has all the resources to build its own platform from scratch. Ant Group is choosing to partner because it’d save both costs needed to start its own Singaporean wing from nothing and the time needed to meet regulatory demands as well as acquire a license. Besides the company is known for its strategic partnerships and currently partners with banks and companies. Some of its partners include Klarna in Europe, Touch ‘n’ Go in Malaysia, GCash in the Philippines, TrueMoney in Thailand, Dana in Indonesia, KakaoPay in South Korea, and bKash in Bangladesh.

This way, AliPay users find making cross-border payments to local merchants very easy to complete when they find themselves in other countries. These local retailers and merchants have support for an e-wallet that works with AliPay, payments can be made using their wallets from AliPay. This saves the stress of having to change to local currencies, holding cash, and what have you.

Its strategic partnership with 2C2P is part of its goal of going global. AliPay has seen to the needs of over 1 billion users in Asia and 1 million offline merchants across Asia and Europe, Ant Group says.