Ant Group’s 2C2P slashes 2023 losses by 93%

Since its acquisition by China-based Ant Group in 2022, fintech firm 2C2P has been working steadily to scale its business. It has also signed several partnerships with big-name brands like Ikea and Asus.

At the tail end of that year, the Singapore-headquartered company also entered a buy now, pay later partnership with Indian payments major Pine Labs. The move was designed to expand BNPL acceptance across six key Asian markets: Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand.

These efforts appear to have paid off, with 2C2P recording a 5% revenue increase in 2023 compared to 2022. While the firm’s losses shrank by 93% during the same period, a closer look at its financials indicates that this came as a result of share-based payments in 2022 falling out of the picture the following year.

The growth coincides with the overall boost in digital payments transaction values across Southeast Asia in 2023, a trend expected to continue through at least the next four years.

2C2P offers a suite of payment solutions for businesses, helping them send and receive money across borders. It also provides specialized services for airlines, social commerce firms, and credit card issuers across 10 markets.

Throughout the year, 2C2P entered several partnerships. To build new payment capabilities for its patient engagement management platform, it collaborated with DKSH Partners. Its tie-up with AMK was aimed at bolstering support for money transfers from Thailand to Cambodia.

2C2P appears to have done so while shedding a significant amount of losses in 2023 compared to the previous year. One of the key factors that helped slash expenses was a 41% decrease in employee benefits.

“Over the past five years, our team has continued to expand in numbers, with a 25% year on year growth in 2023,” a 2C2P spokesperson told Tech in Asia.

According to its LinkedIn page, 2C2P has over 540 workers at the time of writing. It also invested “a larger amount on employee benefits and compensation” in 2022.

It remains unclear, however, if the reduction in spending for employee benefits in 2023 is sustainable as 2C2P plans to increase its workforce with the support of Ant International, Ant Group’s Singapore-based digital payment and financial services platform.

Also, while costs for 2C2P’s staff salaries rose in 2023, it registered a one-time share-based payment of US$18.2 million in 2022 that inflated its expenses for that year.

Taking share-based compensation out of the equation, the company’s total costs in 2022 would actually have been lower than the US$132.6 million it logged in 2023.

This also means that 2C2P would have made a net profit of US$2.3 million in 2022, in contrast to 2023, when it made a post-tax loss of 2.6 million. Before 2022, the firm had been profitable for three straight years.

What’s not in doubt is that the business generates lots of cash.

It posted a 11.3% growth in net cash generated from operating activities in 2023 compared to the year before.