(Yicai Global) Sept. 17 — Ele.me, best known as one of China's leading meal delivery providers, has doled out some CNY15 billion (USD2.2 billion) in loans to merchants since it began offering financial services 10 months ago and began deepening ties with investor Ant Financial.

The Alibaba-backed firm, officially Lazhasi Network Technology Shanghai, began offering loans to merchants at the end of last year and uses big data to feed them with ads promoting suitable products, it said in a statement on Sept. 15. The maximum loan size is CNY1 million (USD145,500) and the funds can be used for general business operations, redecorating  or to open new stores.

Alibaba's fintech affiliate Ant is no doubt a major factor in the move toward financing. It pumped USD350 million into Ele.me as early as April 2016 as part of a USD1.25 billion funding round led by its parent. Then earlier this year penned a deal to acquire the takeout service for USD9.5 billion.

Ant and Alibaba's investment in Ele.me was an important strategic boost for the firm to actively expand into payments and financial services, said Eric Jing, president of Ant Financial, adding that this would help Ele.me better serve its merchants and users. Ant's main app, Alipay, is the biggest player in China's mobile payments sector, and it and lead rival WeChat Pay, run by Tencent, command a combined 90 percent share of the market.  

The firm has provided financial services to more than 400,000 tenants so far, and estimates that this month it will dish out tens of millions of yuan via just one of its loan products across Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and other provinces, it said in the statement.

Editor: James Boynton