Tinaba expands its partnership with Ant Group

By Leandra Monteiro

Tinaba has signed a partnership deal with Alipay+ to become its latest digital payment partner, allowing its customers’ direct access to more than 2.5 million Alipay+ supported stores.

Tinaba is the first European bank-affiliated mobile wallet, and the only one in Italy, which has partnered with Alipay+, thus enabling its customers to make payments in euros and in their own language in Asia directly, from the Tinaba app.

Italian travelers who are Tinaba customers are now able to make cross-border payments via QR code at Alipay+ partner merchants, both in South Korea with the support of Kakao Pay and in Malaysia. From the beginning of July, the service will also be extended through Alipay+ solutions in Australia and Qatar, with further extensions in more Asian nations and other markets around the world, with a goal to cover the entire Asia continent.

Matteo Arpe, President of TINABA said, “The further expansion of our historic partnership with Alipay allows Tinaba customers to travel around the world and pay with their cell phones safely and in their own language without worrying about cash and foreign exchange anymore. We are especially proud because we are the first European operator with this unique technological offering, through the union of the typically Western credit card payment network with the Eastern one based on QR Code technology offering our customers, even very young ones, the possibility to move around the world safely just with their cell phones.”

“By expanding our partnership with Tinaba, we look forward to better connecting Italian and European tourists to Asian markets, offering a great exchange rate, along with digital services and promotions through the power and simplicity of QR code payments. We appreciate Tinaba’s innovative and forward-thinking business philosophy of helping banks keep up with the latest in mobile fintech, and we believe that Banca Profilo can support their growth with a comprehensive offering designed for mobile customers,” said Guoming Cheng, general manager of Ant Group in Europe and the Middle East.

Currently, Chinese tourists can make payments and get promotions with Alipay at thousands of Italian stores, restaurants, in cabs, and at tourist attractions in Italy. The partnership, which is also expanding in Italy, is a payments ecosystem with a unique experience without language and currency barriers. The seamless experience is now being extended to other Asian travellers under the collaboration between Alipay+ and Tinaba.