CHAI Raises $45 Million In Series B-Plus The funds will be utilized to expand its footprint in southeast Asia and develop a fully automated end-to-end payment infrastructure for digital merchants
By Shrabona Ghosh •
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CHAI, a payment solution platform, has raised $45 million in Series B-plus round co-led by SoftBank Ventures Asia (SBVA) and Nyca Partners. The round also saw participation from KT Investment, Conductive Ventures, Nordstar Capital, Samsung NEXT and B Capital.
The funds will be utilized to expand its footprint in southeast Asia and develop a fully automated end-to-end payment infrastructure for digital merchants throughout Asia.
Founded in 2019, CHAI aims to bridge the payments gap in Asian markets by providing a unified payment orchestration solution for local merchants through a single application programming interface (API). Through CHAI port, merchants can activate and offer over 30 payment options such as credit cards, digital wallets, bank transfers and cross-border payments to their customers in under an hour, said a statement.
"We are excited to continue our partnership with CHAI as they grow in Korea and expand across southeast Asia, which is ripe for digital innovation in the payments space. We believe that the CHAI port solution truly solves crucial pain points for online retailers and is a needed orchestrator in the digital merchant ecosystem," said JP Lee, CEO of SoftBank Ventures Asia.
"Emerging markets in southeast Asia represent some of the fastest growth opportunities in digital payments. With the COVID-19 pandemic making accepting digital payments a necessity, we want to empower both global and local merchants to rapidly expand into new markets and reach billions of global consumers respectively. This new funding is a testament to our success in markets such as Korea and Vietnam and we are excited to establish ourselves as the staple digital payments infrastructure of Asia," said Daniel Shin, chief executive officer of CHAI.
CHAI helps businesses grow by offering the most efficient solution to online payments. Its B2B service CHAI port offers a unified API, which allows thousands of innovative online businesses to instantly offer over 30 different payment options, added the statement.
