A financial infrastructure platform deeply rooted in Latin America, dedicated to connecting the fiat and crypto worlds, 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 amount not only confirms the market's confidence in the stablecoin payment sector.
It is worth noting that Alibaba Investment, an investment institution under Alibaba Group, appeared among VelaFi's investors.
Why Alibaba?
Alibaba Investment is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alibaba Group, established in the British Virgin Islands in 2000.
As one of the world's largest B2B and B2C trade platforms, Alibaba is well aware of the pain points in cross-border payments—high fees, lengthy settlement cycles, and exchange rate volatility risks.
The stablecoin infrastructure provided by VelaFi enables instant, low-cost cross-border settlements. VelaFi's deep presence in emerging markets like Latin America overlaps with the key growth regions of AliExpress and Alibaba.com.
Through this investment, Alibaba is likely exploring the use of stablecoin technology to optimize its local payment and merchant settlement experience in emerging markets.
Who Else is Betting on VelaFi?
VelaFi's current funding round was led by XVC and Ikuyo, with participation from Alibaba Investment, Planetree, and existing investor BAI Capital, among others. To date, VelaFi's total funding has surpassed $40 million.
One of the lead investors, XVC, is a dual-currency (RMB and USD) fund management institution headquartered in Beijing. Its partner, Boyu Hu, has invested in star companies like Kuaishou, Weee!, Walnut Programming, and霸王茶姬 (a popular tea chain).
The other lead investor, Ikuyo, is a Tokyo-listed company. This investment is not their first interaction; as early as November 2025, when VelaFi entered the Japanese market, the two parties had already reached a strategic cooperation agreement, jointly becoming co-organizers of the Stablecoin Settlement Association to provide more transparent and economical settlement services for exporters and global enterprises.
Who is VelaFi?
VelaFi is part of Galactic Holdings. Galactic Holdings was founded by a Chinese founding team. Its co-founder and CEO, Maggie Wu, is also the CEO of VelaFi and the founder of the well-known venture capital firm Krypital Group.
Galactic Holdings owns the crypto 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, was officially rebranded as VelaFi.
Currently, starting from Latin America, VelaFi has expanded its business footprint to the United States and Asia. VelaFi states that it has served hundreds of enterprise customers to date, processing billions of dollars in payment transaction volume.
Core Model
VelaFi focuses on the B2B market. To ensure compliance, all corporate customers must pass strict KYC (Know Your Customer) and KYB (Know Your Business) verification before accessing VelaFi's service network.
Its core model can be summarized in three points:
1. Fiat On-Ramp & Off-Ramp Channels
This is VelaFi's foundational business, aiming to solve the industry challenge of free conversion between fiat currency and stablecoins.
On-Ramp: Allows end-users of enterprises to pay using local fiat currency, while the enterprise receives an equivalent amount of stablecoins (like USDT/USDC) or assets like Bitcoin.
Off-Ramp: The enterprise sends stablecoins to VelaFi, and VelaFi utilizes its local banking network to deposit funds into the user's bank account in the form of local fiat currency.
2. Global Payments & Cross-Border Transfers
Another service is global payment services, enabling cross-border fund transfers via a "Fiat A - Fiat B" path. For example, a Mexican company paying a Brazilian vendor. Previously, this involved complex intermediary banks. Now, through VelaFi, the payment is made in Pesos (MXN), and the recipient receives Reais (BRL).
VelaFi acts like an "accelerator" built on top of traditional banking rails.
Its core advantage lies in its deep integration with Latin America's mainstream instant payment systems: Mexico's Interbank Electronic Payment System (SPEI), Brazil's Instant Payment System (PIX), and Colombia's Payment System (PSE). By linking these traditional payment rails with stablecoin liquidity, VelaFi enables cryptocurrency to no longer just float on the chain but to potentially be truly implemented in cross-border e-commerce, labor outsourcing, and international trade.
