Photo caption, from left to right: Dr. Khalid Alsharif, Chief Executive Officer, Abdul Latif Jameel Finance Saudi Arabia; Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel, Chairman, Abdul Latif Jameel; Leiming Chen, Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer of Ant International; and Clara Shi, CEO of WorldFirst.
  • Collaboration begins with global treasury and digitization services of Ant International’s WorldFist
  • MoU focuses on accelerating digitalization of financial and consumer services for Saudi Arabia’s merchants and consumers
  • Ant International is headquartered in Singapore and works with global banks, e-payment partners, and industry platforms to drive inclusive growth for businesses of all sizes through its innovative fintech solutions

Abdul Latif Jameel Finance, a leader in innovative financing solutions and services that is regulated by the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA), and Ant International, a leading global digital payment, digitization and financial technology provider, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly explore opportunities in the financial technology sector in Saudi Arabia.

Through this collaboration, Abdul Latif Jameel Finance and Ant International will help grow and strengthen Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Saudi Arabia with advanced digital services.  Both parties plan to collaborate on a diversified range of innovative digital financial services to businesses and consumers in the Kingdom. In particular:

  • Exploring how WorldFirst, Ant International’s all-in-one digital cross-border payment and treasury account service, can leverage its technology to support Abdul Latif Jameel Finance’s digitization strategy for its diverse financial and consumer businesses.
  • Collaborating on advanced cross-border payment solutions, leveraging Alipay+, Ant International’s global mobile wallet gateway, to support local and international expansion of customers in Abdul Latif Jameel Finance’s robust merchant network in Saudi Arabia.
  • Further partnering on opportunities in embedded finance, while leveraging Ant International’s digital technologies.

Dr. Khalid Alsharif, CEO, Abdul Latif Jameel Finance, said:

“Our collaboration with Ant International represents an important step toward realizing our vision of enabling innovative and more inclusive financial solutions in Saudi Arabia. As the fintech ecosystem continues to evolve, we remain committed to contributing to the advancement of the financial sector, in line with Vision 2030.”

Leiming Chen, Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer of Ant International, said:

“The MoU is another important step in Ant International’s journey to build cross-sector partnerships with regional industry leaders in supporting Saudi Arabia’s digital economy agenda.

“WorldFirst and Ant International are honored to support the mission of Abdul Latif Jameel Finance to provide diversified financial and digital services for MSMEs in the Middle East, ” said Clara Shi, CEO of WorldFirst. “Joining our innovative fintech capabilities with Abdul Latif Jameel Finance’s expertise and ecosystem, we look forward to contributing to regional trade and commerce as Saudi Arabia embraces an exciting digital transformation.”

With headquarters in Singapore and main operations across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America, Ant International provides global wallet gateway, global merchant payment services, unified global account services, and embedded finance services through its major brands Alipay+, Antom, WorldFirst, and Bettr.  In 2025, Ant International opened its first Middle East office in Riyadh and will integrate Alipay+ with Saudi Arabia’s national payment scheme, ‘mada’, in 2026.

The MoU aims to better serve Saudi Arabia’s retail and MSME customers, leveraging a combination of Abdul Latif Jameel Finance’s reach in the Kingdom and Ant International’s digital technologies.

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