Recently, according to disclosures by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, B2B cross-border payment service provider XTransfer (Extransfer Limited-W) has officially submitted its listing application, with UBS Group and China International Capital Corporation serving as joint sponsors. This fintech company, founded in 2017 and headquartered in Shanghai, has taken a crucial step towards the capital market after completing seven rounds of financing. The shareholder lineup for XTransfer's listing is notably impressive, bringing together renowned domestic and international institutions such as Gaorong Capital, Planetree, D1 Capital Partners, Alibaba, China Merchants Capital, LHCP, and Lingyi Venture Capital. The company's most recent funding round was completed in March 2026, raising $69 million and achieving a post-money valuation of $3.02 billion. As a globally leading B2B cross-border trade payment platform holding payment licenses in multiple countries and regions, what investment value does XTransfer truly possess?
Rapid Revenue Growth, Widening Losses, and Slight Pressure on Gross Margin XTransfer was established in 2017 and is among the first global payment platforms dedicated to B2B cross-border trade. It aims to address pain points faced by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), such as low accessibility to cross-border payments, account freezes, difficulties in remittances, slow settlements, and high costs. As of March 31, 2026, the company has obtained the necessary payment licenses in Mainland China, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, the United States, Singapore, the Netherlands, Australia, and Canada.
In terms of financial performance, XTransfer demonstrates strong growth momentum. From 2023 to 2025, its revenue grew from $115 million to $248 million, achieving a compound annual growth rate of 47.5%. During the same period, gross profit was $110 million, $152 million, and $229 million respectively, with the gross margin remaining consistently above 92%. However, the company reported losses of $153 million, $353 million, and $484 million during the reporting period. While losses appear to have widened, this is primarily attributable to changes in the fair value of convertible and redeemable preferred shares. Excluding this factor and calculated under non-IFRS measures, adjusted net profit was $11.2 million, $5.27 million, and $47.67 million respectively. Particularly in 2025, profitability improved significantly, indicating that the company's operations have entered a profitable track.
It is noteworthy that XTransfer's business structure is highly concentrated in payment services. From 2023 to 2025, the proportion of payment service revenue was 76%, 80.2%, and 83.8% respectively, showing a continuous upward trend. Meanwhile, the proportion of interest income from customer funds declined from 23.3% to 15.4%. Concurrently, the gross margins for both core businesses experienced slight declines: the gross margin for payment services decreased from 94.6% to 91%, and the gross margin for interest income from customer funds dropped from 99.5% to 98.5%. Although the absolute values remain high, if this trend continues, it may reflect increasing industry competition or enhanced customer bargaining power.
The Dividend Period of the Cross-Border E-commerce Industry: The SME B2B Payment Market Awaits Expansion XTransfer's rapid growth is closely tied to the structural opportunities within its sector. In recent years, China's cross-border e-commerce has maintained a relatively fast growth rate, with its strategic importance continuously rising. Data from research institutions shows that from 2021 to 2024, the scale of China's cross-border e-commerce market increased from RMB 1,888 billion to RMB 3,257.4 billion, with an average annual growth rate significantly higher than that of traditional foreign trade. From January to April 2026, the industry continued its high growth momentum, with cross-border e-commerce import and export volume reaching RMB 618.46 billion in the first quarter. Cross-border e-commerce has become a crucial bridge connecting China's domestic industrial system with the global consumer market, and its strategic significance will become even more prominent during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period.
Notably, the 2026 Government Work Report marks the thirteenth consecutive year that cross-border e-commerce has been included in the nation's highest-level policy agenda. The policy direction has evolved from earlier phases of "expanding pilot programs" and "encouraging development" to the current focus on "expanding, upgrading, and developing in a standardized and orderly manner," indicating that the industry's core demands have shifted from scale expansion to quality improvement.
Unlike C2B cross-border payments on the consumer side, B2B cross-border trade payments involve larger individual transaction amounts, longer transaction chains, and greater risk exposure. C2B payments rely on the unified settlement networks of card organizations and mature digital wallet systems, with relatively well-developed infrastructure. In contrast, B2B payments still primarily depend on the intermediary bank networks of the traditional banking system, lacking a globally unified settlement platform. The networks of different financial institutions are often incompatible, requiring transactions to pass through multiple intermediaries. Cross-border payments typically take three to seven business days, with high operational complexity and limited transparency. The coverage for small currencies is particularly weak, and foreign exchange controls in many emerging markets exacerbate the difficulties in converting between mainstream currencies and small currencies. Global anti-money laundering requirements are becoming increasingly stringent, and the cumbersome, labor-intensive compliance processes of traditional financial institutions further contribute to slow and easily interrupted payments.
SMEs constitute the backbone of global B2B cross-border trade, yet they face more pronounced structural challenges. In terms of numbers, SMEs account for over 90% of all enterprises participating in such trade. In terms of trade volume, SMEs contributed approximately $12.7 trillion in 2025, representing 38.4% of the global B2B cross-border trade total. It is projected that by 2030, this figure will rise to about $16.2 trillion, with the share further increasing to 41.1%. This indicates that B2B cross-border payment solutions targeting SMEs possess a vast and continuously expanding market space.
However, due to relatively small transaction volumes and insufficient risk management capabilities, the economic viability for traditional banks to serve SMEs is low. Consequently, a large number of SMEs are excluded from the formal financial system and are often forced to turn to unlicensed fund service providers, facing high compliance risks such as fund freezes, payment interruptions, and account suspensions. This dilemma of low service accessibility and the forced recourse to grey channels represents the real-world challenges SMEs encounter in cross-border payments.
The X-Net Network + AI Large Model: Building a Competitive Moat XTransfer is precisely the platform providing cross-border payment services for SMEs, helping them achieve efficient and secure settlements with overseas trading partners. Beyond its core payment services, the company also offers a range of value-added services, including treasury management and software services, to clients outside Mainland China, catering to the increasingly diverse business needs of SMEs.
In terms of transaction scale, from 2023 to 2025, XTransfer's total payment volume (TPV) was $18.633 billion, $32.618 billion, and $60.516 billion respectively, with a compound annual growth rate of 80.2%, significantly higher than the industry's overall growth rate of 34% during the same period. The number of annual active customers increased from 82,600 to 149,000, and the TPV contributed per active customer rose from $225,500 to $406,300. Furthermore, the net revenue retention rate for customers reached 121% in 2025, and the proportion of TPV from clients outside Mainland China increased from 24.5% to 44.3%, demonstrating substantial progress in global customer acquisition.
XTransfer's core competitiveness largely stems from its self-developed X-Net platform. This is reportedly the world's first and currently only globally unified B2B cross-border trade settlement and risk management platform. It has established partnerships with several international banks, with payment services covering over 200 countries and regions worldwide. The company has further deeply integrated X-Net with digital wallets, enabling SMEs to complete cross-border fund collection, exchange, and transfer in a more intuitive manner through a single app. As of March 31, 2026, X-Net has connected to 171 financial institutions via standardized APIs, achieving round-the-clock, fully automated fund flows, data exchange, and operational processes within its partner network.
The company's self-developed vertical AI model, TradePilot, is the world's first and most advanced AI model specifically for the B2B cross-border trade payment vertical. According to data from CIC, as of March 31, 2026, through TradePilot, the company achieved an industry-leading transaction automated review rate of approximately 98.5% and maintained a fraud rate at an exceptionally low industry level of about 0.003%, while establishing one of the industry's best cost-effective risk management practices. This capability not only significantly reduces operational costs but also forms another core moat beyond payment licenses.
Data from CIC indicates that, as of December 31, 2025, compared to traditional bank transfers, using the XTransfer platform can reduce customers' remittance fees by approximately 95% and fund exchange service fees by about 80%, demonstrating a significant cost advantage.
In terms of compliance and risk control, XTransfer implements fully digitalized management of identity verification and transaction monitoring. Relying on its AI-driven risk assessment system and automated document review technology, it has built a robust risk control framework. This not only effectively alleviates financial institutions' concerns regarding risk management but also significantly reduces the frequency of SME bank accounts being frozen or closed.
From a market position perspective, based on TPV in 2025, XTransfer, with a transaction volume of $60.5 billion, is the world's largest B2B cross-border trade payment platform, holding a market share of approximately 5.1%. The second and third-ranked players held market shares of 2.6% and 1.5% respectively, corresponding to TPVs of $30.3 billion and $17.7 billion, indicating that market concentration remains relatively low.
In summary, benefiting from the dividend period of digitalization in global SME B2B cross-border trade, XTransfer has rapidly established leading advantages in scale and efficiency through its self-developed X-Net platform and AI model. Financially, the company demonstrated improved operational profitability in 2025, and its gross margin above 90%, driven by its asset-light model, confirms the health of its business model. However, investors should still pay attention to potential concerns such as its relatively singular business structure and declining gross margins. For market investors, whether XTransfer can subsequently translate its first-mover advantage into sustained profitability and a deeper moat will be a key factor determining its long-term investment value.
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