Korea based fintech arm of messaging giant Kakao, Kakao Pay has received $200m in private equity investment from Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial. The deal will allow Ant Financial to offer its financial services through Kakao Pay in Korea.
Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial is making yet another M&A deal. The firm is investing $200 million into a fintech project belonging to Kakao, the $5 billion firm that runs Korea’s dominant messaging service. Ant Financial, which manages payments service Alipay and Alibaba’s digital banking business, will invest the capital into Kakao Pay, a soon-to-launch Kakao fintech division. The deal will see Ant Financial begin to offer its financial services through Kakao Pay in Korea, and help expand its business from online payments into offline, banking and financing services. Kakao Talk has 48 million users — it is installed on over 95 percent of smartphones in Korea — and it has long offered mobile payments through its platform.
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