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Hello reader, What does Ant International want to be? If you'd asked Douglas Feagin, Ant International's president, this question a few years ago, the answer would have been simpler. But today, the global arm of China's Ant Group is a sprawling financial services firm that spans payments, merchant acquiring, cross-border services, and lending. As Ant International expands beyond its backyard of Southeast Asia, however, it faces a host of challenges. For one, QR-code-based payments aren't as prevalent in markets like Europe, Latin America, or the Middle East - meaning the firm will have to invest in user education. Much of its efforts have also turned towards AI applications in commerce. In the future Feagin envisions, consumers and merchants will lean more heavily on AI agents to search for solutions. Today's top story is an in-depth Q&A with Feagin, who discussed Ant International's evolution over the past decade and what Chinese payment innovations he thinks people should be paying attention to. In other payments news, Grab has confirmed its acquisition of 60% of buy now, pay later firm Atome, after news about the deal surfaced last week. It's the latest in a series of fintech acquisitions that the super app has made in the past year - one that promises much upside, assuming the BNPL train continues running at full speed. Melissa Goh, senior editor |
TOP STORYAnt International's next payments bet: AI agents  With over a million merchants on its platforms and more than 2 billion cross-border transactions completed last year, Ant International offers a peek into where financial services and AI in commerce is headed. Company president Douglas Feagin shows us the future of payments innovation in this interview. |
SPOTLIGHTGrab buys Southeast Asia's largest BNPL player  BNPL is unexpectedly back in the spotlight this week: Grab announced that it was taking a 60% equity stake in Atome in a US$1.49 billion cash deal. For the uninitiated, BNPL hit its peak in Southeast Asia around 2021, drawing multiple players to the scene. Grab, for instance, launched its own pay-later product in markets like Singapore and Malaysia. Since then, many BNPL firms have quietly folded or been acquired and discontinued, leaving Atome as one of the largest and longest-standing players in the region. Speaking about the deal in a conference call on Tuesday, Grab COO Alex Hungate said the company will continue to offer its own BNPL products. He also pointed out how it wasn't a "sum-zero" situation and highlighted the sizable credit market in Singapore and Malaysia. Financial services is Grab's fastest-growing vertical, and the Atome acquisition could supercharge that, particularly consumer lending - a segment that Grab hasn't fully milked. Just 1% of its 138 million annual transacting users borrow from Grab today, a "deliberate" and prudent choice, CEO Anthony Tan shared. The deal gives Grab instant access to Atome's expanding base of users, loan book, and merchants in new categories like electronics, travel, fashion, and beauty. More importantly, this spares Grab from years of loss-making operations that many lenders face as they train and fine-tune credit models. Meanwhile, it's a solid outcome for Atome, which has amassed an impressive US$1 billion in gross loans since its founding eight years ago. The standalone BNPL firm has successfully proved to detractors that its business model does have legs. |
TRENDING NEWS1️⃣ Grab plans 5x expansion of autonomous fleet in Singapore Autonomous taxi trials in the city-state are expanding. Aside from increasing its fleet size, Grab plans to take the service outside of its current trial area in Punggol. 2️⃣ Waymo, Go plan autonomous taxi service in Tokyo for 2027 If approved by regulators, Tokyo would become Waymo's first commercial launch outside the US. 3️⃣ Amazon Now reaches $1b annualized sales in India The milestone comes as the country's quick commerce market grows. The segment made up about 17% of India's online retail in FY2026, with players Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy Instamart leading the category. 4️⃣ OpenAI in early funding talks at $1.2t valuation The funding round would mark a steep jump from the US$852 billion valuation the company reached in March. 5️⃣ Anthropic to open Singapore office, its 5th in APAC The frontier AI lab already has offices in Tokyo, Bengaluru, Seoul, and Sydney. Among 121 countries, Singapore ranks second for Claude usage relative to population. Anthropic said. |
TECH IN ASIA CONFERENCE 2026 IS A WRAP!Thank you for being part of this year's conference  It was two days of conversations, connections, and ideas bringing together founders, investors, enterprise leaders, and technology decision-makers from across Asia. The event covered topics from what it takes to move AI from pilot to production to the partnerships, investments, and technologies shaping what comes next. Tech in Asia Conference 2026 was made possible by the people and organizations who showed up and made the experience what it was. This wouldn't have been possible without: - Our partners, who helped bring it all together: HSBC Innovation Banking, Ant International, AWS, Sinch, CKGSB, Gong, Google Cloud, Notion, Wonderful AI, Alibaba, Ashrayu Media, GIGABYTE and NVIDIA, HCLTech, L'Oréal, PixVerse, Sunrate, Xendit, Avtica, Beyondsoft, Keenai, Khmer Enterprise, Supabase, Eu Yan Sang, The Business Times, HardwareZone, Her World, The Peak, The Straits Times, 8Circle, ACE.SG, Block71, Claude Singapore Community, Founder Launchpad, IES-INCA, Menlo Research, Noticebob, Performance Pickleball, STACK Conference, Startupbootcamp, Switch, The AI Capitol, Umeus Group, WhyScripted, Women in AI For Good, ZFounder, APRW, and UPGroup Asia.
- Our speakers, who shared the perspectives, lessons, and questions shaping technology and business across the region
- And most importantly, our attendees, who brought the curiosity, ideas, and conversations that carried beyond the stage
Thank you for being part of Tech in Asia Conference 2026 and for helping us bring Asia's tech community together once again. Until the next one, keep building 🚀! |
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