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

Title: “Alibaba Invests in Latin American Stablecoin Financial Company”

Author: KarenZ

Source:

Repost: Mars Finance

A financial infrastructure platform focused on Latin America and 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, VelaFi’s total funding has exceeded $40 million. This funding not only confirms market confidence in the stablecoin payment sector.

Notably, Alibaba Investment, an investment arm under Alibaba, appears among VelaFi’s investors.

Why Alibaba?

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

As one of the world’s largest B2B and B2C trading platforms, Alibaba is well aware of the pain points in cross-border payments—high transaction fees, lengthy settlement cycles, and exchange rate volatility risks.

VelaFi’s stablecoin infrastructure enables instant, low-cost cross-border settlements. Its deep involvement in emerging markets like Latin America overlaps with key growth regions for AliExpress and Alibaba International.

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

Who else is betting on VelaFi?

VelaFi’s current funding round is 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 Beijing-based dual-currency (RMB and USD) fund management firm. Its partner, Hu Boyu, who previously invested in Kuaishou, Weee!, Walnut Programming, and Bawang Tea, among others.

Another lead investor, Ikuyo, is a publicly listed company in Tokyo. This isn’t their first interaction; as early as November 2025, when VelaFi entered the Japanese market, the two parties reached a strategic partnership, jointly becoming 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 Chinese founding team. Its co-founder and CEO, Maggie Wu, is also the CEO of VelaFi and the founder of well-known venture capital firm Krypital Group.

Galactic Holdings owns the crypto wallet TruBit, the trading platform TruBit Pro, and enterprise cross-border payment solutions TruBit Business. In 2025, the original enterprise-level service TruBit Business was officially rebranded as VelaFi.

Currently, VelaFi started in Latin America and has expanded its operations to the United States and Asia. VelaFi reports that it has served hundreds of corporate clients and processed billions of dollars in payment transactions.

Core Model

VelaFi focuses on the B2B market. To ensure compliance, all corporate clients must undergo strict KYC (Know Your Customer) and KYB (Know Your Business) verification before accessing VelaFi’s service network.

Its core model can be summarized in three points:

1. Fiat On-Ramp & Off-Ramp

This is VelaFi’s foundational business, aimed at solving the industry challenge of freely exchanging fiat currency and stablecoins.

Deposit: Allows end-users of enterprises to pay using local fiat currency, with the enterprise receiving equivalent stablecoins (such as USDT/USDC) or assets like Bitcoin.

Withdrawal: Enterprises send stablecoins to VelaFi, which uses local banking networks to deposit funds into users’ bank accounts in local currency.

2. Global Payments and Cross-Border Flows

VelaFi’s other service is global payments, enabling cross-border fund transfers via a “Fiat A - Fiat B” pathway. For example, a Mexican company paying a supplier in Brazil. Previously, this required complex intermediary banks; now, through VelaFi, the payment is in MXN pesos, and the recipient receives BRL reais.

VelaFi acts as an “accelerator” built on traditional banking rails.

Its core advantage lies in the deep integration of mainstream Latin American instant payment systems: Mexico’s SPEI interbank electronic payment system, Brazil’s PIX real-time payment system, and Colombia’s PSE payment system. By linking these traditional payment rails with stablecoin liquidity, VelaFi enables cryptocurrencies to move beyond on-chain speculation and truly land in cross-border e-commerce, labor outsourcing, and international trade.