Asia news roundup: Pakistan move for Alipay; Avail, TaoData, and SmartQ raise funds

An Alipay transaction in China / Photo credit: Alipay

There was plenty of investment and acquisition news from Asia’s fintech space today.

Fintech

Ant Financial pumps US$185 million into Pakistani mobile finance platform (China/Pakistan). The Alibaba affiliate has acquired a 45 percent stake in Telenor Microfinance Bank (TMB) – a subsidiary of Norwegian telco Telenor – as a result of the deal, marking its first foray into Pakistan’s 210 million-strong consumer market. Ant Financial is expected to introduce the technology behind its Alipay platform to develop mobile payments in the country along with TMB’s Easypaisa platform. (Technode)

Avail Finance raises US$17.2 million (India). Bangalore-based Goddard Technical Solutions, which operates online lender Avail Finance, raised the capital in a Matrix Partners-led funding round. Ola co-founders Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati as well as Flipkart co-founder and group CEO Binny Bansal also participated in the round. Avail Finance will use the funds for technology development and hiring new team members. (VCCircle)

Jewel Paymentech nets series A-plus funds (Singapore). The financial risk management startup raised an undisclosed amount from a Singapore-based subsidiary of Japan’s GMO Payment Gateway (GMO-PG). Previous backer Tuas Capital Partners also participated in the latest investment. Jewel Paymentech will use the funding for marketing and to launch services in Japan in partnership with GMO-PG. (e27)

Mypoolin acquired by US counterpart (India). Bangalore-based payments technology startup Mypoolin has been acquired by US digital payments company Wibmo. Mypoolin will continue to operate in India as a subsidiary of Wibmo. FInancial details of the deal were not disclosed. (Mypoolin)

Enterprise software and services

TaoData gets US$15.8 million funding boost (China). The startup uses its machine learning tech to provide enterprise customers with data analytics services. Fosun International led the series B round, with Chaos Investment, Jieshi Capital, and Linear Venture among pther investors taking part. (China Money Network)

Retail

“Digital cafeteria” platform SmartQ gets US$1 million (India). The Bangalore-based startup secured the funding from a consortium of UAE-based investors, with participation from previous backer YourNest. SmartQ offers a suite of tech-driven solutions including a mobile app, automated billing kiosks, prepaid cards, and a point-of-sale system to digitize cafes, restaurants, and food stalls and then turn them cashless. (Inc42)

See: Previous Asia tech news roundups