New retail

Alibaba plans to dominate the smart e-commerce sector

Ant Financial has invested heavily into China's top vending machine manufacturer as it looks to expand facial recognition payments.
August 22, 2019

Alibaba has made another investment in the Chinese retail market, this time into a vending machine manufacturer.

Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial said that it had invested Rmb1.2 billion $169 million in Beijing-based Ubox Online.

Primavera Capital also participated in the round, contributing about Rmb400 million $56 million to the funding.

Proceeds will be used to expand the presence of Ubox’s vending machines together with Ant Financial’s technology. The vending machine manufacturer hopes to be a platform provider to serve the robust development of Chinese e-commerce.

Ubox sells vending machines that allow customers to pay via cash, mobile payments and...

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