Affinity gets joint controlling stake in Ant-backed M-Daq after $200m series D round

Asian private equity giant Affinity Equity Partners has made an investment of US$200 million into M-Daq, a Singapore-based fintech company backed by Ant Group, in a series D round.

The M-Daq team / Photo credit: M-Daq

Founded in 2010, M-Daq has received US$34.8 million in its latest round of funding, according to data from VentureCap Insights. The difference in the amount is due to the round having a mix of secondary shares being sold and not all the amount has been drawn down by the company, Richard Koh, founder and CEO of M-Daq, told Tech in Asia.

With the investment, Affinity joins the board of M-Daq holding a joint controlling stake along with the Singapore-headquartered startup’s management and staff, according to a statement.

Koh has a 15.92% stake in M-Daq while 3.15% belongs to co-founder Joo Seng Wong. In addition, employee stock option plans account for a 12.7% stake in the firm. Founding CFO Lee Yaw Chyun and founding CTO Noboru Takahashi also hold 0.36% and 1.43% stake in the company, respectively. The total amounts to 33.56% stake in the company, according to VentureCap Insights data.

Aside from Ant Group, EDBI, NTT Communications, Samsung, and Kiwoom-Shinhan, an alliance between Kiwoom Securities and Shinhan Capital, are among M-Daq’s existing investors and business partners.

See also: The profitable fintech startup that took off after pitching to Jack Ma on a cruise ship

M-Daq, which has been profitable since 2018, will be using the proceeds from the round to develop innovative product offerings and further expand its global enterprise customer base.

“We are privileged to have found in Affinity a strong believer-partner to pursue our third five-year strategic plan with a view of a public outing, including executing a series of carefully curated inorganic growth plans,” Koh said in a statement.

According to M-Daq, its proprietary foreign exchange solutions process over US$10 billion in cross-border transactions annually, primarily catering to ecommerce and technology companies such as AliExpress, Taobao, and Tmall.

Some of M-Daq’s flagship products include Aladdin and Fliq. Aladdin lets customers on ecommerce platforms to shop in their home currency, while allowing merchants to receive payment in their preferred currency. Fliq enables local e-wallets to be used for payment in other countries when users travel overseas.

The 11-year-old startup was valued at US$368 million after a pre-series D round led by Samsung Venture Investment Corporation in 2019.