Antom, the payment and digitisation services provider under Ant International, is ramping up investment in Vietnam to meet regulatory-driven technology commitments and serve demand from the rapid expansion of e-commerce and new opportunities emerging from the country’s national QR payment infrastructure.
Vietnam is becoming one of Antom’s most strategically important markets, with the company committing capital to local payment infrastructure, engineering talent, and enterprise-focused solutions, including its first rollout of offline payment services for businesses, Worachat Luxkanalode, CEO of Ant Group-owned 2C2P, said during a media briefing in Bangkok.
2C2P is part of Antom, Ant International’s global payment and digitisation solutions provider, serving leading players in travel, online retail, entertainment and more. Ant Group first acquired a more than 80% interest in Southeast Asian payments platform 2c2P in 2022 and subsequently became the 100% owner of the company.
“Vietnam is a major investment market for us from a technology standpoint,” Luxkanalode said. “Because of local regulations, any platform that processes transactions domestically must operate in a separate, locally enrolled environment. That requires significant upfront investment, not just in infrastructure, but in making sure the system can handle large-scale transaction volumes, particularly from e-commerce partners.”
Antom has invested in building a dedicated payment environment for Vietnam that complies fully with domestic regulations while maintaining the capacity to support high-frequency, high-volume transactions. The investment has accelerated since the second half of last year and will continue, he added.
Beyond regulatory requirements, Antom is also expanding its presence as Vietnam rolls out a national QR payment standard and deepens public–private cooperation in digital payments.
“Vietnam’s public–private partnerships (PPPs) and the new national QR standard represent a significant opportunity,” Luxkanalode said. “For companies like Antom and 2C2P, this is a new wave we want to move with, not follow.”
Vietnam will be one of the first markets where Antom expands beyond its traditional focus on online enterprise payments into offline enterprise solutions.
The new offline push will target large retailers, automotive businesses and other brick-and-mortar enterprises, enabling them to integrate digital payments more deeply into in-store operations. This marks a strategic broadening of Antom’s addressable market in Vietnam, where physical commerce remains a critical part of the economy despite rapid digitalisation.
“All of these initiatives—technology investment, QR payments, local teams and offline enterprise expansion—are part of the investments we have made since the second half of last year,” Luxkanalode said. “And we will continue to invest.”
2C2P under Antom saw 38% YoY growth in transaction volume for merchants in SEA, driven by growth in the e-commerce, airline, OTA, and retail sectors, and marked by strong momentum in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
In October last year, 2C2P rolled out a rebrand and a three-year plan that includes a $60-million investment in technology, infrastructure, and innovation
PPPs underpin Ant International’s strategy
Public–private partnerships are a core part of how the company operates across emerging markets, including Vietnam, according to Douglas Feagin, President of Ant International.
He described Southeast Asia as one of the regions with the most proactive governments and regulators in supporting technology adoption, digital payments and the use of AI.
In December, Ant International signed a strategic partnership with The Vietnam Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR Vietnam) to advance the country’s digital economy, foster innovation, and support Ho Chi Minh City’s ambition to become an international financial centre and regional fintech hub.
C4IR Vietnam was established by the World Economic Forum and the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City.
The company typically engages early with regulators as countries design new payment frameworks, often starting with regulatory sandboxes before moving toward partnerships with national payment schemes.
He added that similar PPP models are now being applied beyond Asia, including in the Middle East, where rising travel flows from Asia are driving demand for interoperable digital payment solutions. In Saudi Arabia, Ant International is working with the country’s national payment scheme to introduce QR code payments, marking its first deployment of such technology in the market.
Southeast Asia push
In Southeast Asia, where Ant International has worked with local partners for more than a decade, SMEs have seen a measurable impact on their businesses.
Its Alipay+ continues to support the development of the region’s mobile platforms, including DANA (Indonesia), GCash (the Philippines), TrueMoney (Thailand), TNG Digital (Malaysia), and ZaloPay (Vietnam).
Most recently, Ant International announced that it has supported over 2 billion digital cross-border transactions in 2025 for merchants in its core emerging markets, including Southeast Asia (SEA), South Asia, the Middle East and Latin America (LATAM), as the company builds out a broader range of AI-powered digital financial and commerce solutions tailored to these regions’ diverse needs.
The company currently serves more than 150 million merchants globally, 90% of which are SMEs.
Douglas Feagin, President of Ant International, said the company is sharpening its focus on value-added payment products, particularly multi-currency pricing and instalment payments.
“Going forward, we will focus more on offering instalment products as part of the payment at the checkpoint,” he added.
He said Ant International has built these capabilities on top of its core payment services, allowing merchants to offer customers pricing in multiple currencies alongside instalment options at the point of checkout.
This correspondent’s trip to Bangkok to attend Ant International’s media briefing was sponsored by the company.
