Singapore’s MC Payment acquires a fintech startup to work with Alipay

By Michael Tegos for TechInAsia

Singapore-based MC Payment announced today it has acquired a controlling stake in Genesis Payment Solutions.

Genesis is a Singaporean payments company that is licensed by Alipay to acquire merchants for the Chinese online payments provider. It also helps businesses adopt payment methods by Global Payment Asia Pacific, Wirecard Singapore, and American Express.

The terms of the deal are undisclosed. MC Payment chief investment officer David Wang tells Tech in Asia the acquisition was made with a combination of cash and MC Payment shares.

Through the deal, MC Payment gains access to Genesis’ clients, mostly small- and medium-sized enterprises, as well as the firm’s merchant-acquiring license with Alipay.

“Chinese outbound tourists to the Asia-Pacific region have been growing at 26 percent the past seven years, with yearly expenditure at US$45 billion,” David says. “This is a great partnership for MC Payment to grow our payment solution products and aggressively target new merchants.”

Genesis will continue as a standalone company. Its founder and managing director Jong Kim Poh, a veteran in merchant acquisition with banks like DBS and OCBC, will join MC Payment’s senior management team. MC Payment will integrate its tech into its acquisition and grow the latter’s business in its markets in Southeast Asia and Australia.

Through the deal, MC Payment gains access to Genesis’ clients and its merchant-acquiring license with Alipay.

MC Payment will continue to look for acquisition opportunities in the region to access more clients and work with more payment providers.

Genesis, founded in Singapore in 2014, claims to have signed on more than 50 merchants for Alipay over the last three months and deployed more than 100 units of Alipay payment terminals, processing over 300 Alipay transactions. Its clients include Singaporean businesses like Metro department stores, Sincere Watch, City Tour, Batam Fast Ferry, and more.

David says Genesis has been growing at a double-digit rate every month, but does not share any numbers. He also doesn’t disclose any figures on MC Payment’s recent traction.

MC Payment, one of the oldest Singaporean fintech firms, offers many payment products in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and Australia. It raised a series B round worth US$4.5 million in August and opened an office in Bangkok in November. So far it has raised a disclosed total of US$8 million.

First appeared at TIA