Transferwise partners with Alipay as it targets expansion into China
Transferwise has teamed up with Chinese payment platform Alipay to offer its users money transfers to China, as the London-based payments company moves to expand into the lucrative market.
Under the partnership, Transferwise’s users will be able to send Chinese yuan from 17 currencies to users of Alipay, a subsidiary of e-commerce giant Alibaba.
Alipay and its local partners have over 1.2 billion users globally, making the partnership a significant expansion for Transferwise, which says it handles £4bn transactions every month for over seven million customers.
Co-founder and chief executive Kristo Kaarman said the partnership between the pair had been one of the most-requested features from users since Transferwise expanded into Asia.
“Alipay functions as the primary payment method for more than a billion people in China and we are excited to be bringing instant international transfers to the fingertips of Alipay’s users,” he added.
Kaarman said the agreement marked “a continuation of our vision of making cross border payments instant, convenient, transparent and eventually free”.
Ma Zhiguo, Alipay’s head of global remittances, said the company was looking forward to working closely with Transferwise “as we continue to explore new ways to apply our technology in order to benefit more people globally”.
Transferwise was valued at $3.5bn following its last funding round in May last year. The payments transfer firm recorded a 53 per cent increase in revenue to £179m in its last set of annual results, with £10.3m net profit after tax.