Why SBI just put millions behind a Singapore startup’s stablecoin push

Dtcpay, a Singapore payments company, has completed a $25 million Series A with SBI Group joining as a strategic investor, giving its stablecoin payments business fresh backing for product and merchant expansion.

The company announced the close on Sept. 18, naming SBI Ventures Asset Pte Ltd and the SBI-NTU-Kyobo Digital Innovation Fund as the Japanese group's investment vehicles. Genedant Capital and existing investor Kwee Liong Tek also participated. Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India led the initial tranche.

The funding will support a revamped business portal for enterprise customers, additional consumer features in the dtcpay app and expansion of its merchant network, the company said. Those priorities put the financing behind the tools businesses and customers use to transact, as dtcpay seeks to widen the use of stablecoins in everyday commerce.

The $25 million figure is the total Series A, rather than the size of SBI's investment alone. Dtcpay did not disclose its valuation or the amounts contributed by individual investors.

In the announcement, SBI Ven Capital CEO Eiichiro So described the investment as the start of a strategic partnership. He linked it to SBI's ambition to expand digital-asset origination between Japan and Southeast Asia through regulated financial infrastructure.

The investment connects SBI's regional ambitions with dtcpay's existing payment business. Dtcpay's stated priorities include deeper financial-institution relationships and further product development, alongside merchant expansion. SBI's participation adds a strategic investor to that effort, although the announcement does not allocate individual funding amounts to those objectives.

The cross-border ambitions remain plans for the partnership; the announcement did not include a date for a dtcpay launch in Japan.

Dtcpay founder and CEO Alice Liu framed the financing around changing how money moves across borders. Co-founder and group chairman Band Zhao identified stronger infrastructure, deeper financial-institution partnerships and entry into additional regulated markets as priorities.

SBI's participation follows the earlier Vertex-led financing. Vertex published an announcement on March 17 describing a $10 million Series A for dtcpay. That release already set out product improvements and European expansion as objectives, putting the latest close within an existing international growth plan.

Funding the products around stablecoin payments

Dtcpay says its infrastructure lets businesses and individuals accept, store and transact in stablecoins, with a swap engine connecting stablecoin and fiat settlement. Its product range includes direct merchant acceptance and card-based spending, giving customers different ways to use digital balances.

The company identifies Singapore department store Metro and hospitality business Capella Singapore among its commerce relationships. It also describes an integration with WalletConnect. These examples show the types of retail and payment connections the company is building on as it expands its merchant network.

Its Visa card offers another route to spending. Dtcpay says the card enables transactions across fiat currencies and stablecoins at more than 150 million merchant locations worldwide. That figure describes card acceptance reach, not the number of merchants directly signed up to accept stablecoins through dtcpay.

Direct merchant acceptance and card spending give dtcpay two channels for reaching customers. The release describes both as part of its business but provides no payment-volume figures, leaving the scale of activity through those channels undisclosed.

Dtcpay describes its regulatory footprint as including a Major Payment Institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore and an Electronic Money Institution license in Luxembourg. Both were described in the earlier Vertex announcement, which connected the Luxembourg license to plans for European market entry.

The funding follows that earlier push toward European market entry and adds SBI's stated Japan and Southeast Asia ambitions. Dtcpay's near-term product priorities remain the enterprise portal and consumer app, alongside its merchant network. The announcement ties the financing to those practical improvements without specifying how the capital will be divided between products and markets.