Alibaba invested in a Latin American stablecoin company, VelaFi.

01-14

This article is machine translated

Show original

Original title: Alibaba invests in a Latin American stablecoin financial company

Original author: KarenZ, Foresight News

A financial infrastructure platform deeply rooted in Latin America, dedicated to connecting the fiat and crypto worlds, is emerging.

On January 12th, VelaFi officially announced the completion of a $20 million Series B funding round. Following this round, VelaFi's total funding has exceeded $40 million. This funding amount not only demonstrates market confidence in the stablecoin payment sector, but also reflects the positive outlook for the industry.

Notably, Alibaba Investment, an investment arm of Alibaba, is among VelaFi's investors.

Why Alibaba?

Alibaba Investment is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alibaba Group, which was incorporated in the British Virgin Islands in 2000.

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, long settlement cycles, and exchange rate fluctuation risks.

VelaFi's stablecoin infrastructure enables instant, low-cost cross-border settlements. VelaFi's deep cultivation of emerging markets such as Latin America overlaps with the key growth areas of AliExpress and Alibaba.com.

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?

VelaFi's latest funding round was led by XVC and Ikuyo, with participation from Alibaba Investment, Planetree, and existing investor BAI Capital. To date, VelaFi has raised over $40 million in total funding.

One of the lead investors, XVC, is a Beijing-based dual-currency (RMB plus USD) fund management firm. Its partner, Boyu Hu, has previously invested in star companies such as Kuaishou, Weee!, Walnut Programming, and Bawangchaji.

Another lead investor, Ikuyo, is a Tokyo-listed company. This investment is not the first time the two parties have been in contact. Back in November 2025, when VelaFi entered the Japanese market, the two parties reached a strategic cooperation agreement to jointly become co-organizers of the Stablecoin Settlement Association, providing exporters and global enterprises with more transparent and economical settlement services.

Who is VelaFi?

VelaFi is a subsidiary of Galactic Holdings. Galactic Holdings was founded by a Chinese founding team, whose co-founder and CEO, Maggie Wu, is also the 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 enterprise-oriented cross-border payment solution TruBit Business. In 2025, the original enterprise-level business TruBit Business was officially rebranded as VelaFi.

VelaFi, which started in Latin America, has now expanded its business to the United States and Asia. VelaFi states that it has served hundreds of enterprise clients to date, processing billions of dollars in payment transactions.

Core Pattern

VelaFi focuses on the B2B market. To ensure compliance, all enterprise customers must pass rigorous KYC (Know Your Customer) and KYB (Know Your Business) verifications before they can access VelaFi's service network.

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

1. Fiat currency deposit and withdrawal channels (On-Ramp & Off-Ramp)

This is VelaFi's core business, designed to solve the industry challenge of free exchange between fiat currency and stablecoins.

Deposits: Allows end users of enterprises to make payments using local fiat currency, while the enterprise receives an equivalent amount of stablecoins (such as USDT/USDC) or assets such as Bitcoin.

Withdrawal: Businesses send stablecoins to VelaFi, which then uses its local banking network to transfer the funds into the user's bank account in local fiat currency.

2. Global payments and cross-border transactions

VelaFi's other service, global payments, facilitates cross-border fund transfers via a "fiat currency A - fiat currency B" path. For example, a Mexican company paying a Brazilian supplier. Previously, this would have required complex intermediary banks; now, through VelaFi, the payment is made in pesos (MXN), and the recipient receives Brazilian reals (BRL).

VelaFi is like an "accelerator" built on the tracks of traditional banking.

Its core advantage lies in its deep integration of 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 systems with stablecoin liquidity, VelaFi enables cryptocurrencies to move beyond simply floating on the blockchain and potentially be truly implemented in cross-border e-commerce, labor outsourcing, and international trade.