Sunrate to buy China’s Transfar Pay for $43m to gain license

Image credit: Sunrate

Transfar Logistics, a unit of Shenzhen-listed Transfar Group, has announced that it will offload its entire stake in Transfar Pay to Sunrate, a cross-border payments firm headquartered in Singapore, for US$43 million.

Founded in 2016, Sunrate offers global payment and treasury management solutions. The acquisition is expected to help it gain compliance advantages in China’s increasingly regulated cross-border payments sector. 

Per the agreement, Transfar Logistics will raise Transfar Pay’s registered capital from US$23 million to US$28 million and fully pay it up before the deal closes.

The sale will let Transfar Group exit a loss-making business. Transfar Pay’s net loss hit US$5.4 million in 2024, with revenue of just US$140,000. The logistics group said the payments unit failed to align with its core strategy of building out highway logistics hubs.

The deal still awaits approval from China’s central bank, the National Development and Reform Commission’s foreign investment security review, and the State Administration for Market Regulation, if applicable. Approval timelines remain uncertain.

Sunrate joins a growing list of cross-border payment players acquiring Chinese firms with domestic payment licenses to secure compliance. 

Under Chinese regulations, only companies with internet payment licenses can conduct cross-border renminbi settlements. As the policy environment becomes more stringent – and with over 100 licenses revoked in recent years – the remaining licenses have become highly sought after.

In January 2025, Sunrate competitor XTransfer acquired UnionPay Electronic Payment’s license. Although the deal value was undisclosed, the license was previously listed for US$75 million on the open market.

See also: How Sunrate reached $100m in annualized revenue while staying profitable

Currency converted from Chinese yuan to US dollar: US$1 = 7.26 yuan.