Pony Ma rejected Tencent's investment in Airwallex to build WeChat Pay internally
Jack Zhang · Airwallex CEO & Co-Founder, Jack Zhang: The Angel That Turned $1M into $1BN · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · May 26, 2025 · at 44:02
Jack Zhang, co-founder and CEO of Airwallex, describes an early fundraising attempt where Tencent's investment team approved a deal to power WeChat Pay's global settlement, but founder Pony Ma blocked it.
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“The founder of Tencent didn't approve. After three months process, RCO pass you know, he just basically is like, because the idea is that this is going to help Tencent to do global, you know, VHAP settlement. And then Pony, the founder was like, why can't we build ourself internally?”
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