.jpg){kind=avatar}
PYMNTS.com chronicles the rise of Ant Financial from a small online lender to Chinese SMBs (Alipay) to a global interoperable financial services network that is well positioned, following its SouthEast Asia and Indian fintech investments and acquisitions, to rival the largest multinational players such as Mastercard, Visa, and Paypal. From the mouth of CEO Erin Jing, Ant is building an open ecosystem to provide financial services to over two billion users in 10 years.
Avoiding those mistakes seems top of mind for the Ant Financial team. The Alibaba IPO gave them cash to invest outside China, and their balance sheet gives them assets to borrow against to get more. Ant’s IPO this year will only add more money to the pot. To avoid the “made in China” syndrome, Ant’s decided to acquire native brands in the countries they’re targeting, whose brand reputations and customer footprints they can leverage — and burnish. Before Ant invested in Paytm, it had considered setting up their own shop — a decision they later squashed. It’s also one of the reasons the MoneyGram acquisition is so appealing. MoneyGram would give them a global asset with a globally recognized brand that can be leveraged for other purposes. ...I doubt they’ll rebrand MoneyGram — or at least not for a while.
http://www.pymnts.com/news/payments-innovation/2017/ant-financials-great-mobile-payments-race-india/
