Chinese fintech giant Ant financial is making moves in the Philippines with an investment in Mynt.
The size of the deal is undisclosed with Ant Financial taking what’s described as a ‘substantial minority interest’ in the firm.
Mynt is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Philippine’s largest mobile operator Globe Telecom’s Globe Capital Venture Holdings (GCVHI).
Ant Financial will invest in the firm alongside Filipino conglomerate Ayala Corporation, which will also acquire a minority interest in the company.
Mynt operates micropayments service GCash and personal and business lender Fuse Lending.
Both focus on bringing financial inclusion to the Philippines with GCash offering services such as bill payments and cashless purchases.
Fuse targets unbanked and underserved consumers and businesses as well as developing innovative credit scoring methods.
In addition to the investment, Alipay-owner Ant financial will enter a strategic agreement with Mynt.
Globe Telecom’s president and CEO Ernest Cu said: “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 fulfil 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.”
Mynt will use the capital to expand its online and offline payments business as well as scale up its mobile wallet and digital financial services offerings.
Ant Financial was valued at $60bn having raised $4.5bn in a record-breaking funding round last April.
The firm’s CEO Eric Jing said: “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,”
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