Alibaba's Ant joins Ayala to back Philippines fintech Mynt
Chinese online giant Alibaba's Ant Financial has teamed up with Filipino conglomerate Ayala to invest in fintech start-up Mynt. The subsidiary of Globe Telecom will use the capital injection to scale up its mobile wallet services throughout the Philippines. While this is Ant's first investment in the archipelago, the company, run by billionaire Jack Ma, has been using Alibaba's online power to make inroads into Asia's digital finance market. 

The Chinese Bitcoin exchanges are currently working on complying with various regulations put forth by the country’s central bank. But that hasn’t stopped the country’s firms from expanding their foothold in the blockchain driven fintech industry. Ant Financial Services Group, a financial services company affiliated to the renowned Alibaba Group has announced its investment into Mynt, a fintech company.

According to reports, Ant Financial has invested an undisclosed amount for a substantial minority stake in the Philippines based wallet service owned and operated by Globe Telecom. The investment in a Philippines-based entity comes within months of Ant Financial’s another investment in Thailand’s Ascend Money whose reach extends to Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, and Vietnam.

The company also recently acquired MoneyGram, the international remittance service provider in a $880 million deal. With MoneyGram’s acquisition (which is still going through the approval phase), the company is aiming to enter the financial ecosystem in the United States as well. The parent company, Alibaba also holds a significant stake in Paytm, a leading Indian wallet service provider.

Ant Financial has been active in the blockchain technology sector as well. The company has been working on integrating artificial intelligence and blockchain technology into AliPay. It has already implemented distributed ledger technology into its charitable donation service allowing donors to keep track of their contributions.

Successful integration of blockchain technology into Alipay will enable the company to extend the feature to MoneyGram and other portfolio payment services. In such a scenario, Alibaba Group’s conquests will result in widespread adoption of cryptocurrency technology by some of the leading payments solutions providers across the world.

If the current developments are any indication, then one can expect Alibaba Group to continue investing in various businesses in payments and e-commerce space. In the next few years, Alibaba Group could emerge as a leader in global financial services space.

Ref: TechinAsia | Image: Shutterstock