TransferWise partners with Alipay to enable money transfers to China

London-based fintech startup TransferWise said it has enabled international money transfers to China through a partnership with Alibaba’s Alipay.

TransferWise founders Taavet Hinrikus (left) and Kristo Käärmann / Photo credit: Transferwise

According to the announcement, TransferWise users will only need to add the recipient’s name and Alipay ID to transfer money to the bank account linked to the recipient’s Alipay profile.

With the tie-up, TransferWise will be able to tap into Alipay’s customer base, which includes more than 1.2 billion people worldwide.

“Our newest partnership with Alipay has been one of the most requested features from our users since our expansion in Asia. Alipay functions as the primary payment method for more than a billion people in China […],” Kristo Käärmann, co-founder and CEO of TransferWise, said.

China is projected to be one of the top remittance recipient countries in the world, with US$66.8 billion expected to be sent back home by Chinese living abroad, a 2019 report by the ​Migration Data Portal shows.

TransferWise recently enabled global money transfers to six mobile wallets in three Asian countries as part of its wider expansion plans in the region. The feature was made available for GoPay, Ovo, and Dana in Indonesia, GCash and PayMaya in the Philippines, and bKash in Bangladesh.

See: Transferwise could become the cross-border engine behind region’s e-wallets

Launched in 2011, TransferWise says it currently handles roughly US$5 billion in cross-border transfers every month for its over 7 million users. It was valued at US$3.5 billion after its latest funding round last year.