Alibaba Group’s Jack Ma is investing in the Globe Telecom’s digital financial services through their affiliate, Ant Financial Services Group.
The Chinese e-commerce giant’s investment comes after Ma met Filipino startup companies about funding innovations during the APEC 2015.
The Filipino telecommunications company announced the agreement for Ant Financial to invest in Globe Fintech Innovations Inc (Mynt), a wholly owned subsidiary of Globe Capital Venture Holdings (GCVHI) under Globe Telecom and Ayala Corp.
The partnership will provide faster and better payment technology services in the country like GCash micropayment service used for cashless purchase of goods, and Fuse Lending for personal and business loans.
The partnership deal is the first investment in the Philippines by Ant Financial.
“A world-leading digital financial services provider has decided to partner with us. We are confident that having a strategic partner for Mynt will help fulfill our mission of providing financial services in a non-traditional manner that will benefit the majority of our population who are unbanked. With this partnership, we are set to democratize financial services in the Philippines,” said Globe President and CEO Ernest Cu in a statement.
Ant Financial CEO Eric Jing said the company seeks to help businesses in the country: “We look forward to working with Mynt’s innovative management team to provide simple, secure, low-cost and accessible digital financial services to unserved and underserved individuals and small and micro enterprises in the Philippines, thus helping individuals to live a better life and helping SMEs to grow and create more jobs.”
Ant Financial’s investment Globe Telecom brings the Philippines into the financial service’s open ecosystem which aims to make rapid progress in e-commerce and inclusive financial services to small and micro enterprises and individual consumers.
