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Welcome back to This Week in Fintech-China, my fintech friends!
From monster funding rounds to new AI shopping agents, it’s been a busy week for Chinese tech. On the AI side, Manus pulled in over $500M post-Meta unwind and DeepSeek is closing in on $12B ahead of an IPO, while TikTok and Reap are both rolling out autonomous buying features. Over in payments, OKX landed a $25B valuation, Ant International expanded its tokenized treasury setup, and RedotPay expanded its global off-ramp reach.
Here’s what you need to know this week.
The Rundown
🚀 Product Launches
RedotPay partnered with Nium to expand its stablecoin-to-fiat off-ramp capabilities across international markets.
OKXICE, OKX’s joint venture with Intercontinental Exchange, notified the SEC of plans to launch a 24/7 tokenized securities venue under an innovation exemption. OKX also debuted OKX Money, with 10% yield and stablecoin card payments.
Ant International expanded its tokenized payment operations on two major fronts: it launched a cross-border treasury management solution with OCBC to enable 24/7 liquidity transfers between Singapore and Malaysia, and it expanded its partnership with HSBC to enhance Middle East treasury management using HSBC's Tokenised Deposit Service.
Reap partnered with AIR, Minds by Animoca Brands, and Palo Alto-based agentic commerce infrastructure startup Pivota to develop and test an AI-driven automated purchasing workflow with pre-approved spending limits, with Reap providing the agentic payment capabilities.
Qupital launched an automated on-chain trade financing protocol utilizing smart contracts and stablecoin settlements for e-commerce merchants.
Sends launched a global partnership with UnionPay International to expand its international card issuing and merchant acquiring capabilities.
💸 Fundraises
OKX completed a strategic funding round backed by Circle, Qube Research & Technologies, Ripple, and SC Ventures at a $25 billion valuation.
🗂️ AI, AI, AI
Manus raised over $500 million in a new funding round co-led by Boyu Capital and IDG Capital, alongside Tencent, Sequoia China, and ZhenFund, after unwinding its acquisition deal with Meta.
DeepSeek moved closer to securing $12 billion in its latest fundraising round ahead of a planned domestic initial public offering. Major commitments have come from battery maker CATL and Tencent Holdings in this funding round.
Tencent considered issuing up to $5 billion in offshore bonds to fund its expanding AI infrastructure investments.
TikTok is launching an agentic AI shopping assistant and one-click checkout feature that allows users to discover and buy products entirely within the app.
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Until next time! - Ning
