Singapore’s licensed payments firm dtcpay has closed a $25 million Series A funding round, bringing Japan’s SBI Group into its shareholder base as a strategic investor.
A Singapore-licensed firm offers digital-asset conversion, custody and Visa-linked card services across Europe, Hong Kong, Australia and North America. The Major Payment Institution license it holds originates with the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Genedant Capital and Kwee Liong Tek kept their stakes throughout the round. Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India came first to anchor the raise, followed by SBI joining through SBI Ventures Asset and the SBI-NTU-Kyobo Digital Innovation Fund.
What dtcpay Does
Dtcpay converts assets and holds them in custody. It offers a card tied to Visa that lets users spend stablecoins as if they were regular money. The company’s regulatory reach extends across Europe, Hong Kong, Australia and North America.
The Funding Purpose
The round was not about keeping what dtcpay has already built, according to Alice Liu, the founder and CEO of the company. Instead, she described it as an effort to shift how money moves across borders.
“We did not raise this round to sustain what we have built,” Liu said in the statement. “We raised it to fundamentally change how money moves across borders.”
The funding will be used by Dtcpay for building an enterprise portal, refining its app, and growing its merchant network. The company has kept its valuation, revenue, and how the proceeds will be spent under wraps.
Why SBI Invested
The group’s investment in SBI reflects a wider trend. It has committed money to stablecoin banking and digital-asset infrastructure.
Recently, SBI acquired Singapore’s Coinhako. It expanded its multibillion-dollar stake in Ripple to distribute the RLUSD stablecoin. It serves as a founding validator for Circle’s Arc network.
SBI’s entry into dtcpay is a bid to secure fully regulated pipelines linking Japanese capital with Southeast Asian commercial channels. Stablecoins provide a high-speed alternative to slow traditional correspondent banking, so long as the intermediary satisfies rigorous regulatory standards.
The Round’s Structure
SBI entered the raise through two separate channels: SBI Ventures Asset and the SBI-NTU-Kyobo Digital Innovation Fund, while Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India served as the initial anchor investor.
The two earlier investors kept their holdings through the round, with Genedant Capital and Kwee Liong Tek both remaining invested. This meant the existing backers stayed in place as SBI came aboard.
What Comes Next
Dtcpay’s stated plan is to build out three areas:
- An enterprise portal
- Improved application features
- Merchant expansion
No word from the firm on how it plans to distribute the money raised or on what its current worth stands.
The Bigger Picture
This report charts APAC’s role as a testing ground for stablecoins entering regulated finance, with the region’s rules, use cases and RLUSD’ now serving as a major proving ground for these instruments.
The placement of Dtcpay is significant due to its standing between regulated payments and digital assets. The Major Payment Institution license from Singapore provides the firm with a foundation.
SBI’s involvement carries extra weight. The Japanese group has placed Singapore at the centre of its global stablecoin strategy, with Coinhako and the RLUSD stake already included in that plan.
This funding round marks the end of one stage and the beginning of another. The money has been raised, and now the focus turns to putting it to work.
The ambition behind Liu’s framing of the round as a move toward altering cross-border money movement is considerable.
The valuation issue has yet to be settled. Until then, the funding round can only be seen as a sign of trust from SBI, not a financial report.
The path ahead is plain to see. Singapore operates as a link between Japanese finance and trade across Southeast Asia, and dtcpay sits ready to move that business through it.
Now that the funds are available, the firm can move ahead with building out its enterprise portal, enhancing its app, and growing its merchant network.
Source material: “SBI Group backs payments firm dtcpay in $25 million funding round,” CoinDesk.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.