Jack Ma’s Ant Financial makes first investment in the Philippines

Taguig City in the Philippines. Photo credit: Achim Voss.

Just over three months after Ant Financial first made a move into Southeast Asia with an investment in Thailand, the Chinese web giant has taken a stake in a fintech company in the Philippines.

The deal, for an undisclosed amount, sees Ant Financial, maker of China’s biggest mobile wallet app, take a “substantial minority interest” in Globe Telecom’s Mynt, the companies jointly announced this evening.

See: Jack Ma’s Ant Financial pushes into US with $880m Moneygram acquisition

More cash to go cashless

Mynt, with three million registered users in the nation, runs Gcash, an online service which – not dissimilar to Alipay – allows people to add phone credit, pay bills, send money, make donations, shop online, and purchase goods without the need for cash. It also operates Fuse Lending, which offers personal and business loans.

This is the first ever investment in the Philippines for Ant Financial, a spin-off from Jack Ma’s Alibaba empire.

Photo credit: Alibaba.

Worth an estimated US$60 billion, Ant Financial is rumored to be plotting an IPO sometime this year.

Ant Financial wants to work with Mynt “to provide simple, secure, low-cost, and accessible digital financial services to unserved and underserved individuals and small and micro enterprises in the Philippines,” said Ant CEO Eric Jing in a statement.

Philippines-based Ayala Corporation also took a minority stake in Mynt alongside the Ant deal.