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dtcpay Welcomes SBI Group as Strategic Investor, Extending Series A to US$25M

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SINGAPORE, Sept. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — dtcpay, a Major Payment Institution headquartered in Singapore, today announced the completion of its US$25 million Series A funding round. The round was led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India in April 2026. It is now further anchored by Japan’s leading financial conglomerate, SBI Group, which is investing both through its subsidiary, SBI Ventures Asset Pte Ltd, and through the SBI-NTU-Kyobo Digital Innovation Fund. The round also drew participation from Genedant Capital and existing investor, Mr. Kwee Liong Tek, a prominent Singaporean business leader.

The investment reflects institutional confidence in dtcpay‘s vision of making stablecoins as seamless and accessible as traditional financial services.

Modern Payment Rails for a Digital Economy

Founded by Alice Liu and Band Zhao, dtcpay bridges digital assets with traditional finance through infrastructure that enables businesses and individuals to accept, store, and transact in stablecoins. Its real-time swap engine delivers seamless settlement across stablecoin and fiat currencies, eliminating the operational friction that has slowed mainstream adoption of digital assets. Where traditional cross-border transfers via SWIFT and correspondent banking networks are often slowed by multi-day settlement cycles and layered intermediary fees, dtcpay settles transactions seamlessly, at a fraction of the cost.

dtcpay’s growth has been marked by a series of early moves in the stablecoin payments space. The company launched a Digital Payment Token (DPT) point-of-sale acceptance solution enabling merchants to accept stablecoin payments directly in-store. It also was an early player in Asia to integrate with WalletConnect, extending stablecoin acceptance across more than 700 wallets used by millions of consumers globally. On the consumer side, its partnership with Visa introduced an early stablecoin-to-fiat Visa Infinite card for its customers in the region. The dtcpay Visa card now enables multi-currency spend across both fiat and stablecoins at more than 150 million merchant locations worldwide.

Beyond product innovation, dtcpay was also quick to bring stablecoins to real-world commerce use cases, partnering with BNB Chain to accelerate practical stablecoin adoption and enabling Metro to become the first department store in Singapore to accept stablecoin payments, alongside select hospitality partners such as Capella Singapore.

This additional fundraise enables dtcpay to maintain its pace of execution, scaling its product suite and merchant network while extending its lead in stablecoin payments. It continues to invest in its product roadmap through the remaining half of 2026, including a revamped business portal for enterprise clients and a series of new consumer-friendly features rolled out within the dtcpay app.

As a MAS-licensed Major Payment Institution in Singapore, and one of the select few digital payment companies to hold an Electronic Money Institution license in Luxembourg, dtcpay has built a regulatory foundation required to operate across Singapore, Europe, and other strategically important markets. This regulatory-first approach also underpins the reliability of dtcpay’s infrastructure, enabling institutional clients to transact with the assurance of a fully licensed financial institution.

dtcpay’s execution and regulatory leadership has drawn industry recognition, including Disruptor of the Year and Fintech of the Year at the 2025 Asia Fintech Awards, and Fintech Mentor of the Year for Alice Liu at the SFF FinTech Excellence Awards in 2025. Collectively, these achievements highlight dtcpay’s ability to execute at the intersection of innovation, regulation, and commercial adoption.

Strategic Capital to Fuel Global Expansion

The completion of the Series A brings together a diverse group of investors whose collective expertise spans traditional finance, fintech infrastructure, and global market expansion. Beyond capital, these investors contribute strategic network and domain expertise that will help support the company’s next phase of growth.

Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India, part of Vertex Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings, led the initial tranche of the round. In addition to capital, Vertex brings extensive experience scaling technology companies, providing valuable strategic guidance rooted in deep Southeast Asian market expertise.

SBI Group adds a compelling financial service and fintech pedigree to the shareholder base. As one of Japan’s largest financial services groups, SBI operates across banking, securities, insurance, asset management, and digital assets. It has also been among the most active institutional investors in fintech and digital asset infrastructure globally.

Completing the investor group is Genedant Capital, a Singapore-based fund management firm licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore with over USD 2 billion in assets under management and advisory, and existing investor, Mr. Kwee Liong Tek. Genedant Capital brings in a network of family offices, private wealth investors and institutional relationships across Asia, strengthening access to strategic capital as dtcpay scales internationally. Mr. Kwee continues to increase his commitment, reflecting his long-term conviction in the company’s vision of bringing regulated digital payment infrastructure to global markets.

“We did not raise this round to sustain what we have built. We raised it to fundamentally change how money moves across borders. SBI Group has spent decades shaping financial infrastructure across Japan and beyond, from banking and securities to blockchain and digital assets, and their conviction in dtcpay is validation that compliant, real-world stablecoin payments are not a distant vision but an infrastructure being built right now. Combined with the enduring trust of Mr. Kwee and the support of Genedant Capital, we have the capital, the network, and the momentum to move into every market that is ready for this change. And we are just getting started.” said Alice Liu, Founder and CEO of dtcpay.

“The next chapter for dtcpay is about scale. We are strengthening our infrastructure, deepening partnerships with global financial institutions, and expanding into new regulated markets to make stablecoin payments as seamless and trusted as traditional payment rails. With the backing of our investors, we are accelerating our mission to build the financial infrastructure that enables businesses and consumers to move value globally, instantly, and compliantly,” said Band Zhao, Group Chairman of dtcpay.

“dtcpay has made decisive progress in establishing itself as the region’s leading regulated payment infrastructure that bridges traditional payments and stablecoins. Beyond execution, we were impressed by its licensing-led foundation, strong user experience, and comprehensive product offerings for financial institutions, corporates, and individuals. For SBI Group, which is steadily expanding its business footprint across Singapore and Southeast Asia, this investment marks the beginning of a strategic partnership with dtcpay. It also reflects our broader view to expand the global corridor for digital asset origination between Japan and Southeast Asia through trusted, regulated digital financial infrastructure,” commented Eiichiro So, CEO of SBI Ven Capital.

“dtcpay is building the regulated infrastructure that will bring stablecoin payments into everyday commerce.” said Quek How Jiang, CEO of Genedant Capital. “Beyond capital, we look forward to leveraging our network of strategic investors, industry leaders and institutional relationships to support the company’s commercial expansion and international growth.”

About dtcpay

dtcpay is a Singapore-headquartered payment services company building a globally licensed payment network that delivers seamless settlement, competitive pricing, and innovative payment solutions — Tomorrow’s Payments, Today. Licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and holding an Electronic Money Institution licence in Luxembourg, dtcpay is authorised to deliver regulated payment services across the European Economic Area. The company also holds licences and registrations in Hong Kong, Australia, the United States, and Canada, bridging digital assets with traditional finance for businesses and individuals across its licensed jurisdictions.

To learn more, please visit https://dtcpay.com/.

About SBI Group

Founded in 1999, the SBI Group is a comprehensive financial services group and a pioneer of internet-based financial services in Japan, operating across securities, banking and insurance. Beyond these, the Group is also active in asset management, private equity, crypto-assets, and next-generation businesses on a global scale.

Its MAS-regulated Singapore subsidiary, SBI Ven Capital, manages the SBI-NTU-Kyobo Digital Innovation Fund, launched in 2022 to invest in early-stage digital transformation and digital platform companies across Southeast Asia. The fund was established by the SBI Group with NTUitive (a subsidiary of Nanyang Technological University), and Kyobo Securities (a subsidiary of the Kyobo Life Insurance Group), drawing on the partners’ combined business expertise and ecosystems to back the region’s next generation of globally competitive companies.

To learn more, please visit: https://www.sbivencapital.com.sg

About Genedant Capital

Genedant Capital is a Singapore-based fund management firm licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The firm partners with accredited investors, including family offices and private wealth individuals, through a multi-strategy platform spanning private equity, venture capital, public markets, and bespoke investment solutions.

With over USD 2 billion in assets under management and advisory, Genedant Capital combines disciplined investment research, institutional risk management, and deep sector expertise across areas including deep tech, healthcare, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and digital infrastructure. The firm seeks to deliver long-term, risk-adjusted returns while supporting high-quality managers and companies with strong growth potential across global markets.

To learn more, please visit https://genedant.com/.

Media Contact: dtcpay marketing team, marketing@dtcpay.com

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Synology® launches ActiveProtect Manager 2.0, bringing expanded platform support and advancing AI-driven security

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SINGAPORE, Sept. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Synology today launched ActiveProtect Manager 2.0 (APM 2.0), the latest software update for its ActiveProtect data protection appliances. This release introduces expanded platform coverage, cross-platform recovery, and enhanced security, with future updates bringing AI-driven threat mitigation.

“Managing fragmented backup infrastructure drives up costs and slows recovery. The ActiveProtect appliance unites purpose-built storage with powerful data management software into a single, predictable investment,” said Jia-Yu Liu, Executive Vice President of the Synology Data Protection Group. “APM 2.0 builds on that value, enabling organizations to safeguard their entire hybrid infrastructure through one centralized, scalable solution.”

Expanded platform coverage
APM 2.0 extends protection to Amazon EC2, Azure VM, Proxmox VE, Nutanix AHV, and Google Workspace. Cross-platform recovery allows workloads to be backed up and restored across different environments, supporting both disaster recovery and seamless workload migration.

Backup destinations have also expanded. ActiveProtect Vault now supports a wider range of Synology NAS models, while Azure Blob Storage joins the list of supported copy and tiering targets. Backups stored in Amazon S3 Storage or Azure Blob Storage can be restored directly into either Amazon EC2 and Azure VM as a cloud disaster recovery strategy without routing through on-premises hardware, significantly reducing recovery times.

AI-driven proactive resiliency
ActiveProtect Manager 2.0 adds software-based storage encryption at the volume level to secure data at rest. Backup data and system configurations remain inaccessible in the event of drive theft or hardware loss.

The upcoming APM 2.1 update will add AI/ML anomaly detection, tracking each backup version for shifts in change rate, file modifications, mass deletions, and entropy. Suspicious backup copies will be moved to quarantine for administrators to investigate, limiting the risk of backup contamination. The model learns from those outcomes to improve accuracy and reduce false positives.

APM 2.1 will also scan backups for malware before restoration, using integrated third-party antivirus software such as Microsoft Defender, Bitdefender, and ESET. If malware is detected in the most recent backup, Auto Fallback restores the latest clean version instead.

Availability
ActiveProtect Manager 2.0 is available for all DP-Series appliances at no additional cost. For details, please refer to the product page.

About Synology
Founded in Taiwan in 2000, Synology is a technology company specializing in network-attached storage (NAS), data backup and recovery, video surveillance, and networking solutions for businesses and individuals worldwide. Over the past two decades, Synology has continuously expanded its ecosystem to help users manage, protect, and unlock the value of data more effectively in the era of cloud, AI, and big data.

Synology’s core philosophy is to build a comprehensive hybrid-cloud ecosystem that enables businesses to protect, synchronize, and manage data through a centralized, intuitive, and easy-to-operate platform. From enterprise storage, data backup, file sharing, and collaboration to video surveillance and network infrastructure, Synology’s solutions are designed to simplify IT management and accelerate digital transformation.

Alongside ongoing technology innovation, Synology also focuses strongly on long-term stability, security, and scalability for data infrastructure. More than half of Fortune 500 companies use Synology solutions, reflecting the brand’s credibility and ability to support large-scale data operations worldwide.

Website: https://www.synology.com/en-sg

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2026 World Manufacturing Convention Opens Sept. 20 in Hefei

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“Made in Anhui” Takes the Global Stage

HEFEI, China, Sept. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The 2026 World Manufacturing Convention will bring global business leaders, government officials and technology experts to Hefei, Anhui Province, from September 20 to 23 for four days of business engagement, technology showcases and discussions on the future of manufacturing.

Held under the theme “Intelligent Manufacturing for a Better Future,” the convention will feature an opening ceremony and keynote addresses, business-matching sessions spanning key industrial and supply chains, investment and project meetings, the release of major industry reports, and exhibitions highlighting the latest manufacturing technologies and achievements. Organizers have identified 946 potential partnership projects to date, representing more than RMB 400 billion in combined investment.

More than 1,000 prominent guests from around the world are expected to attend, according to the World Manufacturing Convention Executive Committee Office. They will include foreign political leaders and ministerial-level officials; representatives of the guest country of honor and international partner provinces, states and cities; diplomatic and consular officials based in China; and heads of international organizations.

The convention will also welcome more than 500 international delegates, including C-suite executives representing Fortune Global 500 companies and other multinationals, among them Merck, Mitsubishi Electric and Air Liquide.

The United Kingdom will serve as this year’s guest country of honor, while more than 40 companies from the United States, France, Russia and other countries will participate as exhibitors. A series of international business programs will connect Chinese and overseas companies, with sessions devoted to the international expansion of small and medium-sized enterprises, cross-border industrial and supply-chain partnerships, China-Europe manufacturing cooperation, and the future of industry in China and France. Dedicated programs will also feature the guest country of honor and Anhui’s international partner provinces, states and cities.

By bringing together companies and resources from across the industrial value chain, the convention aims to translate Anhui’s manufacturing strengths into new commercial partnerships and investment opportunities. Provincial delegations have also promoted the event and pursued potential projects in Germany, Morocco and other international markets.

The program will spotlight growth sectors including smart and connected electric, plug-in hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles, advanced information technologies and artificial intelligence, along with emerging fields such as quantum technologies, embodied AI and biomanufacturing. Leading scientists and industry experts from China and abroad will examine advances in these technologies and the trends expected to drive the next wave of industrial transformation.

Among the major industry publications to be released are the Annual Report on the Development of the Industrial Base (2025–2026) and Manufacturing Digital Transformation Capabilities 2026. The reports will provide data, analysis and practical insights for manufacturers and policymakers worldwide.

This year’s program comprises four flagship events, six major project and business-matching events, and 21 specialized programs. Flagship activities will include the opening ceremony, keynote addresses and an official tour of the exhibition.

The six project-focused events will bring together centrally administered state-owned enterprises, multinational companies, companies with investment from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, businesses backed by overseas Chinese investors, and privately owned manufacturers. They will include a partnership event for Chinese private-sector manufacturers, a business-matching program connecting multinational companies with Anhui’s emerging industries, a forum promoting cooperation between Anhui and Taiwan in complementary sectors, and a project-matching event for overseas Chinese entrepreneurs.

The convention will also partner with leading think tanks and research institutions, including the National Manufacturing Strategy Advisory Committee, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology and the China Electronics Standardization Institute. Jointly organized programs will include the 2026 Forum on Building China into a Manufacturing Powerhouse, an event focused on the digital and intelligent transformation of manufacturing, and a forum on innovative approaches to smart manufacturing standardization.

Several related industry events will take place elsewhere in Anhui during the convention. Wuhu will host the 2026 Low-Altitude Economy Development Conference; Chuzhou will stage a business and technology-matching event showcasing advances in photovoltaics and next-generation energy storage; and Tongling will host the China Copper Processing Industry Annual Conference together with the China (Tongling) Conference on High-Quality Development of the Copper Industry.

Anhui enters this year’s convention with a rapidly expanding industrial economy. Among businesses in the province’s industrial sector with annual revenue of at least RMB 20 million, combined revenue has risen from RMB 3.8 trillion to RMB 5.9 trillion, moving Anhui from 12th to fifth place nationwide. The province also ranks fifth nationally on an index measuring the high-quality development of manufacturing, firmly establishing it as one of China’s major industrial centers.

The exhibition—traditionally one of the convention’s principal attractions—will occupy 70,000 square meters, according to the Anhui Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology.

A 20,000-square-meter exhibition devoted to manufacturing development and innovation will comprise 10 themed zones. These will include an introductory pavilion, a showcase of China’s manufacturing capabilities, a guest province pavilion, an international pavilion, a smart and connected vehicle zone, and a robotics and embodied AI zone.

A further 50,000 square meters of commercially operated exhibition space will be divided into five industry-specific zones covering areas such as automotive supply chains and semiconductors, as well as artificial intelligence and robotics. More than 900 companies have been selected to participate, with over 10,000 items expected to be on display.

Luogang Park will host a separate interactive showcase devoted to integrated unmanned systems operating across air, ground and other environments. Outdoor displays will include demonstrations of unmanned aircraft and autonomous vehicles.

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SOURCE World Manufacturing Convention

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Trip.Biz Launches Agent ONE, an AI Suite Transforming Business Travel — Cutting Booking Time by 90% for Travellers and Simplifying Oversight for Travel Managers

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–     Trip.Biz launches Agent ONE, at Transform 2026
–     Agent ONE is four connected, specialised agents supporting the end-to-end business travel lifecycle
–     Improves OBT adoption and reduces travel program leakage worldwide

SINGAPORE, Sept. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Trip.Biz, the business travel brand of Trip.com Group, welcomed 200 senior leaders from travel, procurement, finance, and HR to Transform 2026, held at the Mandarin Oriental, Singapore.

The half-day summit set out to challenge one of the most persistent assumptions in global travel management – that Asia Pacific is intrinsically too complex to manage consistently – while unveiling its new Agent ONE AI tool.

Transform 2026 opened with an address from Trip.Biz CEO Tao Song, titled “A New Day One for Business Travel”. Song set the tone for the afternoon by framing Trip.Biz’s next chapter around simplicity and trust, describing a company built on local depth across Asia Pacific and continuing to grow in Europe and around the world.

“Trip.Biz aims to become a leading global AI-powered travel management company (TMC) rooted in APAC and built for the complexity of global business travel”, said Tao Song. “We are building for the new world, in which digital adoption pushes the boundaries of what’s possible, and gives way to innovative tech solutions that help fix real-world challenges”, he added.

Complexity Isn’t the Region, It’s the Model

For multinational travel, procurement and finance teams, APAC has long been treated as the exception that breaks the global travel program – a patchwork of markets with different regulations, payment standards, languages and supplier ecosystems.

Trip.Biz’s position, delivered in the event’s keynote by General Manager, Southeast Asia Eugene Tan, is that this diagnosis is wrong. “The complexity isn’t the APAC region, it’s the model”, Tan explained during his “Rethinking APAC as ONE” keynote. “Every model on the market today breaks somewhere, because none of them delivers consistency and depth at the same time.”

The company points to three structural gaps that persist:

Legacy TMCs offer deep local expertise, but execution depends on the local office involved, resulting in different standards in every market.Digital-only platforms are fast and familiar for routine bookings, but go silent the moment something isn’t routine.In-house, self-managed programs offer full policy control, but no system to catch it when that control breaks down.

Each model delivers one piece of the puzzle, but gaps remain, costing global travel programs time, money, and control.

Trip.Biz’s answer is a single, digital-first, full-service platform, designed to give global programs consistency across markets while absorbing the complexities of APAC – from contracting and settlement to entities and supplier ecosystems – rather than passing them on to the traveller or the program owner.

In practice, this means a single enforced service standard across every market, one consolidated view spanning booking, approvals, and reporting, and a consistent end-to-end experience. This consistency has delivered a 90% SLA compliance rate and an 80%+ satisfaction score across the region Trip.Biz serves.

Product Director Terence Eng built on this during his “Closing Leakage with One Platform” keynote, stating that the model alone doesn’t fully solve the problem, a challenge that extends across global travel programs. “Even with one platform, leakage doesn’t disappear automatically,” Eng said. “To actually reduce it, that platform needs the right content and genuinely good usability. Without both, travellers will still book off platform, even with the right model in place.” Getting this right, Eng noted, is what ultimately increases adoption.

Launching Agent One: Built to Improve OBT Adoption and Fix Leakage

Trip.Biz CEO Tao Song took the stage to launch Agent ONE during his “Building Trust through Simplicity with Agent ONE” keynote, positioning it as the next step in closing the leakage gap. “A platform with the right content and usability gets you most of the way there”, Song said. “AI is how we go further; by continuing to improve the user experience itself, we can drive an even higher adoption rate.”

Agent ONE is a team of four connected, specialised agents supporting the end-to-end business travel lifecycle:

Planning Agent: ends the multi-site search struggle. Drawing on a broader, multi-source range of content, it converts natural-language requests into personalised, policy-compliant recommendations, understanding traveller preferences, trip purpose, and itinerary logic to simplify search and boost online adoption.Booking Agent: replaces friction-heavy TMC booking flows with guided, conversational booking, keeping more trips inside the OBT. Early performance targets show average booking time dropping from around 45 minutes to 2 minutes, a +90% efficiency improvement, while keeping bookings natively connected to Trip.Biz inventory, pricing, approval, and payment.Approval Agent: auto-approves low-risk requests and routes only exceptions to human review, cutting approval wait times from over an hour to under 3 seconds.Insight Agent: goes beyond static dashboards to proactively surface hidden data patterns and actionable cost-saving opportunities, often missed due to rigid, fixed-view reporting. Insight Agent generates a full travel analysis report, complete with leakage patterns and savings opportunities, in under 7 minutes, a process that previously took analysts up to a week using legacy tools.

The real opportunity for AI is to remove the complexity travellers experience. When AI can understand what a traveller needs, find the right content, and automatically apply company policy, the managed program becomes simpler and more trusted. This helps drive greater adoption and reduce leakage, removing the complexity that has stood in the way of managed travel’s original promise: one place for every trip. “Unlike generic AI assistants, Trip.Biz positions Agent ONE as a purpose-built AI solution”, Song said. “We drive greater business efficiency across each stage of the business travel lifecycle, and help solve the practical challenge faced by our industry.”

Trip.Biz positions the Agent ONE launch not as an incremental product update, but as a marker of how it intends to compete globally: combining the local depth required in complex markets with the consistency, simplicity and intelligence multinational travel programs increasingly expect worldwide. Agent ONE is now available globally across all Trip.Biz-supported markets.

END

About Trip.Biz

Trip.Biz, a digital-first full-service travel management company (TMC) powered by Trip.com Group, provides an all-in-one solution that streamlines business travel with human-centric technology and a people-first approach, offering extensive global content, exceptional service, and ESG solutions. As the fastest-growing TMC in the last few years, we have been trusted by over 15,000 multinational corporations and more than 1,000,000 small to medium-sized enterprises globally.

At Trip.Biz, we are dedicated to providing cost-effective and time-efficient travel solutions, empowering businesses to focus on what truly matters – growth and success. By saving on travel costs and time, our clients can invest more in their core operations and achieve their business outcomes.

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