Alibaba invested in a Latin American stablecoin company, why VelaFi?

2026-01-14 20:46:56

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Alibaba invests in the Latin American stablecoin financial company VelaFi, attempting to use stablecoins to address the challenges of cross-border payments and settlements in emerging markets.

Original Title: Alibaba Invested in a Latin American Stablecoin Financial Company

Original Author: KarenZ, Foresight News

A financial infrastructure platform deeply rooted in Latin America, dedicated to connecting fiat currency with the crypto world, is emerging.

On January 12, VelaFi officially announced the completion of a $20 million Series B funding round. After this round of financing, VelaFi's total funding has exceeded $40 million. This amount not only confirms the market's confidence in the stablecoin payment sector.

Notably, Alibaba's investment arm, Alibaba Investment, is among the investors in VelaFi.

Why Alibaba?

Alibaba Investment is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alibaba, registered in the British Virgin Islands in 2000.

As one of the world's largest B2B and B2C trade platforms, Alibaba is well aware of the pain points in cross-border payments—high fees, long settlement periods, and exchange rate fluctuation risks.

The stablecoin infrastructure provided by VelaFi enables instant, low-cost cross-border settlements. VelaFi's deep engagement in emerging markets like Latin America overlaps with key growth areas for Alibaba's AliExpress and Alibaba International Station.

Through this investment, Alibaba is likely exploring the use of stablecoin technology to optimize its local payment and merchant settlement experience in emerging markets.

Who Else is Betting on VelaFi?

This round of financing for VelaFi was led by XVC and Ikuyo, with participation from Alibaba Investment, Planetree, and existing investor BAI Capital. To date, VelaFi's total funding has surpassed $40 million.

One of the lead investors, XVC, is a dual-currency (RMB and USD) fund management firm based in Beijing, whose partner Hu Boyu has invested in star companies like Kuaishou, Weee!, Walnut Programming, and Bawang Tea Princess.

Another lead investor, Ikuyo, is a publicly listed company in Tokyo. This investment is not the first interaction between the two; back in November 2025, when VelaFi entered the Japanese market, they reached a strategic cooperation to jointly become co-organizers of the Stablecoin Settlement Association, providing more transparent and economical settlement services for exporters and global enterprises.

Who is VelaFi?

VelaFi is a subsidiary of Galactic Holdings. Galactic Holdings was founded by a team of Chinese entrepreneurs, with co-founder and CEO Maggie Wu also serving as CEO of VelaFi and the founder of the well-known venture capital firm Krypital Group.

Galactic Holdings owns the crypto wallet TruBit, the trading platform TruBit Pro, and the cross-border payment solution for enterprises, TruBit Business. In 2025, the existing enterprise-level business TruBit Business was officially rebranded as VelaFi.

Currently, VelaFi has started in Latin America and has expanded its business footprint to the United States and Asia. VelaFi claims that to date, it has served hundreds of enterprise clients and processed billions of dollars in payment transaction volume.

Core Model

VelaFi focuses on the B2B market. To ensure compliance, all enterprise clients must pass strict KYC (Know Your Customer) and KYB (Know Your Business) verifications before accessing VelaFi's service network.

Its core model can be summarized in the following three points:

Fiat On-Ramp & Off-Ramp

This is VelaFi's foundational business, aimed at solving the industry's challenges in freely exchanging fiat currency and stablecoins.

On-Ramp: Allows the end users of enterprises to pay with local fiat currency, and the enterprise receives an equivalent amount of stablecoins (such as USDT/USDC) or assets like Bitcoin.

Off-Ramp: Enterprises send stablecoins to VelaFi, which uses local banking networks to deposit funds into users' bank accounts in local fiat currency.

Global Payments and Cross-Border Flow

VelaFi's other service is global payment services, enabling cross-border fund flows through the "Fiat A - Fiat B" pathway. For example, a Mexican company pays a Brazilian supplier. Previously, this required complex intermediary banks; now, through VelaFi, the payment is in pesos (MXN), and the recipient receives Brazilian reais (BRL).

VelaFi acts as an "accelerator" built on traditional banking rails.

Its core advantage lies in its deep integration with mainstream instant payment systems in Latin America: Mexico's Interbank Electronic Payment System (SPEI), Brazil's Real-Time Payment System (PIX), and Colombia's Payment System (PSE). By linking these traditional payment rails with stablecoin liquidity, VelaFi allows cryptocurrencies to move beyond just existing on-chain and potentially land in cross-border e-commerce, labor outsourcing, and international trade.

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