Original Title: "Alibaba Invests in a Latin American Stablecoin Financial Company"
Original Author: KarenZ, Foresight News
A financial infrastructure platform that focuses on Latin America and is committed to bridging fiat and the crypto world is emerging.
On January 12, VelaFi officially announced the completion of a $20 million Series B funding round. With this round, VelaFi's total funding has exceeded $40 million. This funding amount not only demonstrates the market's confidence in the stablecoin payment sector.
Notably, Alibaba Investment, an investment arm under Alibaba Group, has appeared in the list of investors for VelaFi.
Why is it Alibaba?
Alibaba Investment is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alibaba, established in 2000 and registered 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, long settlement cycles, and exchange rate fluctuation risks.
VelaFi's stablecoin infrastructure enables instant, low-cost cross-border settlements. VelaFi's deep focus on emerging markets like Latin America aligns with the key growth regions of AliExpress and Alibaba's international marketplace.
Through this investment, Alibaba is likely exploring the use of stablecoin technology to enhance its local payment and merchant settlement experiences in emerging markets.
Who else is betting on VelaFi?
This round of financing for VelaFi is led by XVC and Ikuyo, with participation from Alibaba Investment (an investment arm under Alibaba), Planetree, and existing investor BAI Capital. To date, VelaFi's total funding has exceeded $40 million.
One of the lead investors, XVC, is a dual-currency (RMB and USD) fund management firm headquartered in Beijing. Its partner Boyu Hu has previously invested in star companies such as Kuaishou, Weee!, Hetao Programming, and Bawangcha.
Another lead investor, Ikuyo, is a publicly traded company based in Tokyo. This investment is not the first collaboration between the two parties. As early as November 2025, when VelaFi entered the Japanese market, they had already established a strategic partnership and jointly became co-organizers of the Stablecoin Settlement Association, providing exporters and global enterprises with more transparent and cost-effective settlement services.
VelaFi is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform that provides a range of financial services, including lending, borrowing, and yield farming. It
VelaFi is a subsidiary of Galactic Holdings. Galactic Holdings was founded by a Chinese entrepreneurial team, and its co-founder and CEO, Maggie Wu, also serves as the CEO of VelaFi and is the founder of the well-known venture capital firm Krypital Group.
Galactic Holdings owns the cryptocurrency wallet TruBit, the trading platform TruBit Pro, and the cross-border payment solution for businesses, TruBit Business. In 2025, the original enterprise-level business TruBit Business officially rebranded to VelaFi.
Currently, VelaFi has started from Latin America and has since expanded its business to the United States and Asia. According to VelaFi, to date, it has served hundreds of enterprise clients and processed payment transaction volumes in the billions of dollars.
Core Pattern
VelaFi focuses on the B2B market. To ensure compliance, all business clients must pass strict KYC (Know Your Customer) and KYB (Know Your Business) verification before they can access VelaFi's service network.
Its core model can be summarized into the following three points:
1. Fiat On-Ramp and Off-Ramp
This is VelaFi's core business, aiming to address the industry challenge of freely exchanging fiat currency and stablecoins.
Deposit: Allows end-users of a business to pay using local fiat currency, while the business receives equivalent stablecoins (e.g., USDT/USDC) or assets like Bitcoin.
Withdrawal: The company sends stablecoins to VelaFi, which then uses the local banking network to transfer the funds into the user's bank account in the local fiat currency.
2. Global Payments and Cross-Border Transactions
VelaFi's another global payment service enables cross-border fund transfers through the "Fiat A - Fiat B" route. For example, a Mexican company pays its Brazilian supplier. Previously, this required going through complex intermediary banks, but now with VelaFi, the payment is made in pesos (MXN), and the recipient receives Brazilian reais (BRL).
VelaFi is like an "accelerator" built on the track of traditional banking.
Its core advantage lies in the deep integration of major 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 channels with stablecoin liquidity, VelaFi enables cryptocurrencies to go beyond merely existing on the blockchain and potentially be applied in real-world scenarios such as cross-border e-commerce, labor outsourcing, and international trade.