M-DAQ, a FinTech startup backed by Ant Group, has bought e-wallet operator Wallex to help it expand more in Southeast Asia, Bloomberg reported Monday (Feb. 21).
This could also pave the way for an initial public listing (IPO). Wallex’s services include an e-wallet, letting merchants collect, convert and store money in different currencies.
If this deal goes through, the entity could potentially process over S$15 billion in online transactions every year. Wallex would continue in that case as an independent company.
The deal is one of the first in a possible series of acquisitions for the Southeast Asian payments space by the company, according to Jeremy Sng, an ex-head of Southeast Asia investment banking at CLSA who has been with M-DAQ since December. At the company, his job title is the head of corporate finance and strategy.
M-DAQ plans to inject over S$7 million ($5.2 million) into Wallex in working capital, though Bloomberg noted that the total value hasn’t been revealed.
M-DAQ plans to snap up “about two companies annually” in the next couple of years before trying to go public in the U.S., London or Singapore. Per the report, the companies they’re looking for should have a value between $50 million to $250 million.
Additionally, M-DAQ’s technology guarantees foreign exchange rates in advance based on customer data. That will make it so clients, including platforms like JD.com or Alibaba, can display prices of goods in local currencies.
PYMNTS wrote that China debuted its digital yuan wallet on Jan. 4 on the Apple App Store, as well as the Google Android app stores.
Read more: The Five Things That Will Determine The Success – or Failure – of China’s Digital Yuan Wallet
Prior to this debut, the e-CNY app operated as a pilot version available to customers of financial institutions supporting the projects, which included most major banks.
The public release was a sign that China wanted to keep to its schedule and debut the full central bank digital currency (CBDC) in time for public testing in February for the Olympics.
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