WorldRemit ties up cross-border remittance partnership with Alipay

UK-based remittance firm WorldRemit has signed a global partnership with Chinese payments giant Alipay.

WorldRemit users can now send remittances to Alipay wallets

The deal means that WorldRemit users can perform cross-border remittances to an Alipay wallet. Something that the London company believes will bring “more convenient and inclusive transfer services to users around the world”.

Tamar El-Emary, chief commercial officer at WorldRemit, says that the partnership will focus on “innovation, customer experience and speed to market.”

According to the remittance firm, the vast majority of remittances are sent offline, with money being taken to, and collected by, physical agents.

According to Statista data, the transaction value in digital remittances is expected to reach $112 billion in 2021, while the number of people sending their money digitally cross-border will hit 13.2 million by 2023.

Ma Zhigou, Alipay’s head of global remittances, adds: “The unique mobile to mobile payment experience that this partnership delivers allows us to provide a convenient money transfer service to Alipay customers.”

WorldRemit, founded in 2010, raised $175 million in a Series D funding round back in June 2019. The company has raised a total of $407 million across 11 rounds.

The deal with Alipay isn’t the company’s first partnership with Chinese payment firms. In April 2019 it launched international transfers to China UnionPay cardholders.

Alipay for its part has been attempting greater integration in the European market. In November last year it announced that it would be looking to support 10 million small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the continent by 2024.

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That same month it launched a prepaid card for international visitors to China supported by the Bank of Shanghai.

Related: PayPal first foreign company to nab Chinese payments licence