Singapore-based currency exchange platform M-Daq has received funding from Ant Financial, the financial services affiliate of e-commerce group Alibaba, Tech in Asia reported today citing a document obtained by the publication.
Neither company has provided further details but it appears likely Ant Financial was the unnamed strategic investor that led M-Daq’s $87m series C round in November 2015, which also included EDBI, the investment arm of Singaporean government body Singapore Economic Development Board.
Founded in 2010 as Summit Investment, M-Daq operates a foreign exchange platform to simplify cross-border trading, and has also launched a dedicated offering for e-commerce, dubbed Aladdin, that aims to make cross-border transactions cheaper for retailers.
Ant Financial’s stake in M-Daq is worth $22m, or about 42% of all shares listed in the document, though that percentage does not take into account the employee stock option pool.
The corporate invested through API, a Hong Kong-based vehicle wholly owned by Shanghai Yunju Investment, which in turn is 100% held by Ant Financial.
M-Daq closed a S$21.8m ($16m) series B round in 2013 backed by Citi Ventures, the corporate venturing subsidiary of financial services firm Citi. The round was led by venture capital firm GSR Ventures and also featured Murano Enterprise, Pisoni Assets and Neoma Investments.
GKGoh and unnamed additional investors provided an undisclosed amount of series A capital for M-Daq in 2010, following a S$500,000 angel round earlier the same year.