XTransfer, a Chinese fintech firm specialising in business-to-business (B2B) cross-border financial services, is planning to expand its presence into wealth management and lending, reported Reuters.
The firm, which competes with PayPal and PingPong in China, aims to serve its clients, who are underserved by traditional banking, with the new move.
XTransfer founder and CEO Bill Deng said that firm will start short-term investment offerings to small exporters who have cash temporarily held in their accounts.
According to Deng, Chinese exporters get paid by overseas consumers but do not have to make payments to suppliers immediately. The firm intends to help these exporters to use the spare money to make returns.
XTransfer is also planning to roll out lending services for small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in tie-up with banks. The firm intends to use data generated through cross-border transactions for the service, which it expects to launch later this year.
Founded in 2017, Shanghai-headquartered XTransfer has a presence in Hong Kong, and Shenzhen as well as in the UK, the US, Canada, Japan, Australia, and Singapore.
The firm, which is backed by China Merchants Venture and Gaorong Capital, has been focused on cross-border payments and small businesses.
Its expansion into financial services is anticipated to challenge Ant Group, which started off as a payment company and dive into other financial businesses later.
“We want to be a cross-border version of Alipay linking buyers and sellers,” referring to Ant’s payments app.
XTransfer is planning to expand into financial services at a time China eases its regulatory pressures on the tech sector and encourages tech firms to support small businesses in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Deng noted: “The central government and the People’s Bank of China are hoping that financial services can be expanded to support SMEs.”
Last year, XTransfer secured $138m in Series D funding to upgrade its products and services.
