Ant Financial Services Group, the financial services affiliate of Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd., has agreed to make a US$200 million strategic investment in Kakao Pay, a mobile payment solution provider of South Korean-based messaging platform company Kakao Corp., according to Ant and Kakao's joint announcement.
Kakao and Ant Financial said the investment will help connect Ant's 450 million global users with Kakao Pay, which currently has over 14 million members on its platform.
It marks Ant Financial's third major investment in the online payment sector within the last 12 months.
“South Korea is an important market for Ant Financial in its global expansion, and we see many opportunities in the market for innovative services and growth in mobile payments. Given Kakao’s leading mobile platform offering and vast customer base, we believe we can bring Ant Financial’s broad experience in digital payments and technology-driven financial services to offer exciting and innovative products to South Korean customers,” said Douglas Feagin, President of Ant Financial International.
Founded in 1995, Kakao Corp operates a number of products in the field of communication, media and content, games, lifestyle, financial technology, as well as search engine. The company is best known for its online messaging app Kakao Talk.
Kakao Pay was launched by the company in 2014, and has attracted over 10 million users after one and a half year since the mobile app's official launch.
Ant Financial completed a US$4.5 billion series B round of financing last April, and has made two investments in international payment companies following its last funding round.
In November 2016, Ant Financial acquired a 20% stake in Thailand's online payment firm Ascend Money with an option to acquire an additional 10% in the future. Last month, it acquired another payment company, U.S.-based MoneyGram International Inc., for approximately US$880 million.