Key points

  • Singapore-based dtcpay completed a $25 million Series A after strategic investment from SBI Group, extending a round first led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India in April.
  • The company plans to expand its merchant network, revamp its enterprise portal and add consumer features to its payment app.
  • dtcpay holds a Major Payment Institution licence in Singapore and an Electronic Money Institution licence in Luxembourg, while its valuation and revenue remain undisclosed.

SBI joins a $25 million round

Singapore payment company dtcpay has completed a US$25 million Series A after securing strategic backing from Japan's SBI Group. The financing extends a round that Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India led in April 2026. SBI participated through its Singapore subsidiary SBI Ventures Asset Pte Ltd and the SBI-NTU-Kyobo Digital Innovation Fund. Genedant Capital and existing investor Kwee Liong Tek also joined, according to the company announcement. dtcpay did not disclose its valuation, revenue or the amount contributed by each investor.

A regulated stablecoin payment stack

Founded by Alice Liu and Band Zhao, dtcpay provides payment infrastructure intended to connect stablecoins with conventional money. Its products include a real-time conversion engine, merchant settlement tools, custody services and a Visa-linked card. The company says businesses can accept supported digital assets while choosing settlement in stablecoins or fiat currencies, reducing the need for merchants to manage token conversion themselves. The consumer app combines payment, conversion and card functions, while the enterprise portal handles business accounts and transaction workflows.

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Funding targets products and merchants

dtcpay said it will use the Series A proceeds to scale its product suite and merchant network. Planned work includes a redesigned enterprise portal and additional consumer features in its mobile app. The company also intends to broaden payment acceptance through its card and merchant services. Its announcement described the Visa card as usable at more than 150 million merchant locations, a figure that reflects Visa's global acceptance network rather than the number of merchants directly signed by dtcpay. No timetable or market-by-market spending plan was provided.

Licensing underpins the expansion

The company operates under a Major Payment Institution licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore and an Electronic Money Institution licence in Luxembourg. It also says it maintains licences or registrations in Hong Kong, Australia, the United States and Canada. Those permissions are central to its pitch to businesses that want stablecoin settlement without building their own compliance and custody systems. They do not eliminate local restrictions: the products and assets available to a customer still depend on the jurisdiction, applicable licence and individual service terms.

Why SBI's participation matters

SBI's involvement adds a large Japanese financial group to dtcpay's shareholder base and may strengthen its access to institutional partners in Japan and Southeast Asia. The company framed the investment as support for cross-border payment links between the two regions. That strategic connection is potentially more important than the headline amount for an infrastructure provider whose adoption depends on banks, payment networks and regulated merchants. However, neither party announced a specific distribution agreement, customer commitment or product launch alongside the investment.

Execution remains the test

The financing arrives as payment companies compete to turn stablecoins from trading instruments into settlement tools for businesses and consumers. Faster cross-border transfers and programmable settlement are attractive, but providers still face compliance costs, fragmented rules, bank integration work and the practical challenge of winning repeat merchant use. dtcpay now has additional capital and a strategic investor, yet the announcement offers no operating metrics with which to measure adoption. Progress will therefore be judged by product delivery, active merchant growth and the reliability of settlement across its licensed markets.

Sources

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