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SBI Group Backs dtcpay as $25 Million Series A Closes
Singapore Payments Firm Targets Merchant Growth and Regulated Stablecoin Expansion
TL;DR
- dtcpay completed a $25 million Series A on September 18, 2026, with SBI Group joining as a strategic investor.
- The financing will support merchant expansion, new enterprise and consumer products, infrastructure upgrades and entry into additional regulated markets.
- SBI positioned the investment as part of a broader effort to connect digital-asset infrastructure between Japan and Southeast Asia.
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Singapore-headquartered payments company dtcpay completed a $25 million Series A funding round on September 18, 2026, after adding Japan’s SBI Group as a strategic investor, giving the stablecoin payments provider fresh capital to expand its merchant network, products, infrastructure and presence in regulated markets.
Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India had led the original portion of the Series A in April 2026, when dtcpay raised an initial $10 million tranche. SBI Group later joined the financing through SBI Ventures Asset Pte Ltd and the SBI-NTU-Kyobo Digital Innovation Fund, extending the round to its final total. Genedant Capital and existing investor Mr. Kwee Liong Tek also participated.
The financing follows a $16.5 million pre-Series A announced in June 2023. dtcpay did not disclose its valuation, the size of SBI Group’s individual investment, its current revenue or a precise allocation of proceeds among its spending priorities.
Alice Liu and Band Zhao founded dtcpay, which provides infrastructure allowing businesses and individuals to accept, store and transact in stablecoins while connecting digital assets with traditional financial services and payment systems.
The company operates a real-time swap engine that settles transactions across stablecoin and fiat currencies. dtcpay said the system is designed to reduce friction when users move between digital assets and conventional money, contrasting its infrastructure with cross-border transfers through SWIFT and correspondent banking networks that can involve multi-day settlement periods and multiple layers of intermediary fees.
dtcpay also operates a Digital Payment Token point-of-sale product that allows merchants to accept stablecoins directly at physical locations. Its WalletConnect integration extends that functionality across more than 700 wallets used by millions of consumers globally.
The company has also partnered with Visa on a stablecoin-to-fiat Visa Infinite card. dtcpay said the card supports multi-currency spending across fiat currencies and stablecoins at more than 150 million merchant locations worldwide.
Other parts of its payment stack include real-time stablecoin-to-fiat conversion, merchant payment terminals and asset-storage infrastructure. dtcpay has also worked with BNB Chain on initiatives intended to move stablecoin payments into real-world commercial settings.
That push has included enabling Metro to become the first department store in Singapore to accept stablecoin payments, according to dtcpay. The company has also introduced stablecoin payment functionality at selected hospitality businesses, including Capella Singapore.
dtcpay Plans Enterprise, Consumer and Merchant Expansion
dtcpay intends to use the financing as expansion capital, with plans to enlarge its merchant network and broaden its product suite. Through the remaining half of 2026, the company plans to roll out a revamped business portal for enterprise clients as well as additional consumer-focused features within its app.
The company also intends to strengthen its infrastructure, deepen relationships with global financial institutions and enter additional regulated markets. dtcpay said it expects to draw on its investors’ financial-sector relationships, market expertise and regional networks as it pursues international growth.
Alice Liu, Founder and CEO of dtcpay, said the round was raised to accelerate that expansion rather than simply maintain the business.
“We did not raise this round to sustain what we have built. We raised it to fundamentally change how money moves across borders,” Liu said.
Liu said SBI Group has spent decades participating in financial infrastructure across Japan and other markets, including banking, securities, blockchain and digital assets. She said SBI’s backing supports the view that compliant stablecoin payments are “not a distant vision but an infrastructure being built right now.”
Liu also cited continued support from Mr. Kwee and Genedant Capital, saying the investor group gives dtcpay “the capital, the network, and the momentum” to expand into markets prepared to support the company’s model.
Band Zhao, Group Chairman of dtcpay, said the company’s priority is now broader deployment.
“The next chapter for dtcpay is about scale,” Zhao said.
Zhao said dtcpay wants to reinforce its infrastructure, expand relationships with global financial institutions and move into more regulated markets while making stablecoin payments easier for businesses and consumers to use. He said the investor backing would help accelerate infrastructure intended to allow users to move value globally, instantly and compliantly.
SBI Links Investment to Japan-Southeast Asia Digital Asset Corridor
Eiichiro So, CEO of SBI Ven Capital, said dtcpay had made “decisive progress” toward becoming a regulated payments infrastructure provider connecting traditional payments with stablecoins.
So said SBI was particularly impressed with dtcpay’s licensing-led foundation, user experience and product range serving financial institutions, corporations and individuals. He characterized SBI’s investment as the beginning of a strategic partnership rather than solely a financial investment.
SBI also linked the transaction to a wider regional strategy. So said the investment reflected SBI Group’s effort to expand a global corridor for digital-asset origination between Japan and Southeast Asia through trusted and regulated digital financial infrastructure.
Quek How Jiang, CEO of Genedant Capital, said the company sees dtcpay’s role extending into ordinary commercial transactions.
“dtcpay is building the regulated infrastructure that will bring stablecoin payments into everyday commerce,” Quek said.
Quek said Genedant plans to support the company not only with capital but through its network of strategic investors, industry executives and institutional relationships.
Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India is part of Vertex Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings. dtcpay said Vertex brings experience scaling technology companies and operating across Southeast Asian markets.
SBI Group, founded in 1999, operates across banking, securities, insurance, asset management and digital assets, alongside international activities in private equity, crypto-assets and other next-generation businesses.
SBI Ven Capital, SBI Group’s Singapore subsidiary, is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and manages the SBI-NTU-Kyobo Digital Innovation Fund involved in the dtcpay investment.
The SBI-NTU-Kyobo Digital Innovation Fund was launched in 2022 to invest in early-stage digital-transformation and digital-platform companies across Southeast Asia. The fund was established by SBI Group, NTUitive, a subsidiary of Nanyang Technological University, and Kyobo Securities, a subsidiary of the Kyobo Life Insurance Group.
Genedant Capital is a Singapore-based fund-management company licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore with more than $2 billion in assets under management and advisory. It works with accredited investors including family offices and private-wealth clients across private equity, venture capital, public markets and customized investment solutions.
Genedant said its investment platform spans deep tech, healthcare, biotechnology, artificial intelligence and digital infrastructure. Mr. Kwee Liong Tek, an existing dtcpay investor, increased his commitment in the financing.
Licensing Forms Core of dtcpay’s Expansion Strategy
dtcpay holds a Major Payment Institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore and is authorized in Singapore for six regulated payment services.
The company also holds an Electronic Money Institution licence in Luxembourg, allowing it to provide regulated payment services across the European Economic Area. dtcpay says it additionally holds licences or registrations in Hong Kong, Australia, the United States and Canada.
dtcpay has positioned its regulatory-first approach as an important part of serving institutional and corporate customers, which the company says require licensed infrastructure before shifting significant payment activity into stablecoins. It has said its licensing structure gives institutional customers greater assurance that they are dealing with a fully licensed financial institution rather than an unregulated crypto-payment intermediary.
The company received Disruptor of the Year and Fintech of the Year honors at the 2025 Asia Fintech Awards. Liu also received Fintech Mentor of the Year at the SFF FinTech Excellence Awards in 2025.
dtcpay’s stated model is to make stablecoins function as ordinary payment infrastructure while reducing the need for merchants and consumers to manually manage blockchain transfers, custody and conversion. Its product structure is designed so users interact with familiar payment interfaces while dtcpay handles stablecoin conversion and settlement underneath.
This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.
