Inside 2C2P’s $15m SME play and renewed SEA push

As one of Southeast Asia’s long-standing payments companies, 2C2P isn’t worried about moving fast and breaking things. Instead, it is focused on staying fresh and relevant.

With global titans circling the region with sharper products and fintech upstarts eager to corner the market, the 22-year-old firm must evolve before the competition forces it to.

2C2P group CEO Worachat Luxkanalode / Photo credit: 2C2P

“We have to upgrade ourselves,” Worachat Luxkanalode, who was appointed as 2C2P’s group CEO in February, tells Tech in Asia.

When Luxkanalode was approached to lead the Singapore-based company, he delivered an unexpected pitch to the board.

“I was very, very transparent that I am not a payments expert,” he recalls.

Instead, he positioned himself as someone who could help 2C2P reinvent itself for the next decade.

Accordingly, the firm is targeting SMEs in 2026 and deepening its push into Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines under its new owner, Ant Group. The China-based fintech giant acquired a majority stake in 2C2P through a strategic partnership in April 2022.

More recently, 2C2P became part of Antom, its parent firm’s global merchant payment and digitization solutions arm.

Catering to small and medium-sized businesses is all about broadening access to financial solutions. That’s where Luxkanalode’s background in digital banking and experience at Grab – where he led the growth of GrabPay, GrabFinance, and GrabInsure – come in handy.

“It’s implanted in my DNA to do something about financial inclusion,” he says.

A company within a company

2C2P has primarily been an enterprise player, processing online payments for airlines, hotels, insurers, and ecommerce platforms.

But starting next year, SMEs will be a key focus for the firm, with Thailand as the launch market. 2C2P expects revenue from this segment to account for about 5% of the company’s overall business portfolio after the first 12 months and at “a much higher percentage” within three years.

The firm is looking to invest at least US$15 million into SME expansion, covering marketing, recruitment, and tech for the first market or two. Consequently, it plans to increase its headcount by 100 to 200 in the coming years.

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