MILAN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 22, 2026--
Tinaba with Banca Profilo announces the launch of digital payments in the Chinese mainland through the extension of its strategic partnership with Alipay+, Ant International’s global wallet gateway solution, bringing a simple, cashless and local payment experience to Italian travellers in the world’s largest digital market.
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Starting today, users can pay in the Chinese mainland at over 80 million merchants simply by scanning a QR code directly from the Tinaba App. This innovation is particularly significant in a country where digital payments are the everyday standard and cash is increasingly less used.
The service is available directly within the Tinaba App through the “Pay Worldwide with Alipay+” feature, which enables payments in euros with transparent exchange rates, without the need to install local apps or open a local bank account. Everything takes place seamlessly within the App, in Italian, offering travellers a smooth and barrier-free experience.
Entering the Chinese mainland market represents a strategic step for Tinaba with Banca Profilo, strengthening its international positioning and expanding services dedicated to travellers in one of the most advanced countries in terms of digital payments. In the Chinese mainland, Alipay+ is a widely used digital payment solution, accepted across millions of shops, restaurants, hotels, transportation and tourist attractions.
As highlighted by Matteo Arpe, President of Tinaba with Banca Profilo: “The extension of the partnership with Alipay+ and Tinaba with Banca Profilo’s entry into the Chinese mainland represent a strategically significant milestone. The Chinese mainland is today the world’s most advanced laboratory for digital payments, and being able to offer our customers simple, secure and fully integrated access to this ecosystem means strengthening Tinaba’s international positioning as an open, innovative financial platform truly focused on global mobility. This is a concrete step towards an increasingly digital, international bank capable of supporting its customers wherever they are in the world.”
Pietro Candela, General Manager of EMEA at Alipay+, said: “We share a clear vision with Tinaba, letting people pay through the banking app they already trust makes daily life simpler, safer and more convenient. By enabling Tinaba users to pay in the Chinese mainland via Alipay+, directly from their Italian app, we're extending a familiar wallet experience into one of the world's most advanced cashless markets. Italian travellers can shop and dine like a local at more than 80 million merchants, with a transparent and efficient FX rate, and will soon have access to added benefits that provide a seamless end-to-end digital journey.”
Candela added: “Travel between Italy and the Chinese mainland is growing fast, helped by visa-free entry for Italian visitors. This expanded collaboration is a powerful example of how European financial institutions can drive the digitisation and globalisation of payments while keeping the user experience simple and secure."
The launch in the Chinese mainland comes amid strong growth in the use of digital wallets for international payments: in 2025, Tinaba with Banca Profilo recorded a +133% increase in transaction volume through Alipay+, confirming growing European user preference for digital wallets when travelling abroad.
In the coming months, the Tinaba App will also integrate Alipay+ Voyager, the built-in AI travel companion, designed to support users throughout every stage of their journey, from planning to in-destination experiences. Directly within the Tinaba App, travellers will be able to organise itineraries, receive personalised suggestions and access useful services such as transportation, hotel and attraction bookings, as well as practical, contextual destination information.
This new phase of collaboration between Tinaba, Banca Profilo and Alipay+ confirms their shared commitment to developing innovative digital solutions that address the needs of international travellers and enable increasingly integrated payment and travel experiences — a key building block in a growth journey driven by innovation and digital inclusion.
The long-standing strategic partnership between Tinaba, Banca Profilo and Alipay+ began in 2018 with the aim of creating a digital payment ecosystem capable of breaking down language and currency barriers. Thanks to this collaboration, in 2023 Tinaba became the first Italian fintech to enable instant online and offline payments in euros and in Italian directly from the App, across Alipay+’s partner merchants. Today Alipay+ connects 1.8 billion user accounts from over 40 mobile payment partners with more than 150 million merchants in over 100 markets.
About Tinaba
Tinaba is a fintech company that integrates with traditional banks, such as Banca Profilo, to offer neo-banking services in full compliance with banking regulations. The app provides a wide range of features, including social and shared money management, charity and crowdfunding, banking and investment products such as robo-advisory and deposit accounts, as well as national and international payment solutions such as e-wallets, cards, and QR codes (e.g., Alipay+). In addition, the app enables users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, making it a unique solution for modern financial needs.
About Alipay+
Ant International's Alipay+ is a global cross-border payment and digitization gateway connecting global merchants to the Asia-Pacific digital wallet community. We offer fintechs and merchants innovative cross-border digital payment and travel services solutions, to enable seamless consumer experience while opening new growth opportunities for businesses, especially small businesses across the world.
Matteo Arpe, President of Tinaba with Banca Profilo, announces the expanded partnership with Alipay+ in Milan, Italy
LONDON (AP) — Shoveling piles of compost and clearing weeds on a cold, damp evening in London might not be most people’s idea of fun.
But it’s smiles and chatter all around as a group of people in running gear put on headlamps and get to work in a community garden located on a derelict parking lot rooftop. The volunteers warmed up by jogging a mile to get to the site, and the digging, squatting and lifting they are doing is part of a weekly workout session.
Combining exercise with community service is the mission of GoodGym, an organization that encourages U.K. residents to “get fit by doing good.” There’s no expensive gym membership, treadmills or weights. All participants need is a desire to walk, run or bike and a willingness to sort cans at a food bank, pick up trash, visit an older adult or do other kinds of local volunteer work.
“I go to the normal gym usually and I do other sorts of exercise, but this is my mandatory once-a-week run with the GoodGym group,” said Jason Kurtis, 42, who was among the regulars toiling in the south London garden. “It’s really fun and it forces me to get out, especially on a Monday night when it’s cold and in the middle of winter.”
GoodGym says it has more than 26,600 members in 67 locations across England and Wales, and that it wants to start new groups in Northern Ireland and Scotland. Most weeks there are meetups happening somewhere. Recent workouts in London included clearing sidewalks of discarded Christmas trees, picking plastic litter from the muddy banks of the River Thames, planting fruit trees and setting up cots for homeless people.
Members say that signing up for activities — and feeling they’re a part of something positive — motivates them to exercise regularly.
GoodGym began in 2007 when its founder, Ivo Gormley, started running to deliver a newspaper to an older person in his neighborhood. At the time, Gormley said he wasn’t doing any exercise and missed being part of a basketball team.
“I just didn’t like that idea of going to a gym, going into a sweaty basement and lifting things that don’t really need lifting. I thought I could do something more useful in my exercise,” he said.
He started organizing group runs to places where participants could help with community projects big and small: the first group ripped down outdated posters in his east London neighborhood, Gormley said.
The idea gained traction in other English cities and GoodGym, which registered as a charity in 2015, expanded rapidly. The COVID-19 pandemic ruled out group runs, but the organization received a surge in requests to help older adults who were isolated at home. Volunteers started focusing on tasks like delivering prescriptions and food.
GoodGym still pairs volunteers with retirees who want someone to talk to or need help with practical tasks like moving heavy furniture or lawn mowing. Many home visits call for one volunteer at a time and therefore have no group exercise component, though participants are encouraged to run, walk or cycle to their assignments.
Gormley said he wanted to make it as easy as possible for people to stay in shape and give back. Monthly donations are welcome but voluntary, and members are not pressured to show up, he said.
“You can just sign up today and have a go tonight. We try to reduce the barriers as much as possible,” Gormley said. “You don’t have to come back if you don’t like it. It’s a really easy way to get involved.”
In southwest London's Battersea district, local GoodGym leader Anastasia Hancock instructs members to lunge, jump and stretch as they prepare for their mile-long run to the Doddington and Rollo community roof garden, a rare slice of greenery in the middle of towering apartment buildings that were built as affordable housing in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Hancock organizes a variety of volunteer projects for GoodGym members in her area, but helping to maintain the garden is one her group returns to every month. She recalls how they once helped shift hundreds of bags of heavy compost up narrow steps to reach the rooftop.
“That was an amazing workout,” she said.
Hancock said she hardly ever cancels a scheduled run and activity, and members keep coming even during London's bleak, drizzly winters. For women, the regular sessions have the added benefit of offering a safe way to run outside after dark, she said.
“I really love coming. I think it’s just a boost of positivity in the week,” said Sophie Humphrey, 33. “It’s amazing to get together a group of people who just want to help somebody they don’t know."
Gormley said he doesn’t know of many similar organizations that combine fitness with volunteering, though he acknowledges that to some extent, the idea behind GoodGym is “really obvious.”
“It’s what people have always done, right? You grow some food and literally through the action of planting and digging, that’s where your exercise comes from,” he said.
The opportunity to socialize is a key element that hooks participants, Gormley said. He said a recent member survey indicated that many young people were keen to get away from phone screens and to have more in-person interactions. Members of Hancock's group Monday night group sometimes go to a pub together when their volunteer work is done.
Christian Krekel, an assistant professor at the London School of Economics who does research in behavioral economics and wellbeing, spent two years leading an evaluation of GoodGym to determine if blending volunteering with exercise offered additional mental health benefits. The findings, based on survey results from 3,600 people who had either expressed interest in joining or already were active members, were promising, he said.
A team of economists recorded improvements in all six aspects of mental wellbeing they measured, with participants reporting feeling less lonely and more satisfied with their lives, as well as a greater sense of “belongingness and connectedness,” Krekel said. More research is needed, but the team hopes the findings, if they are validated, could help shape public policies on mental health.
“Because of this unique combination of volunteering or pro-social activity and physical activity, we do find stronger well-being impacts than what the literature suggests for volunteering and for physical activity alone,” Krekel said. “So I think that’s what makes this so unique, and it’s actually quite powerful.”
Participants in the Goodgym group pose for a group photograph after collecting litter to keep the River Thames free of plastic and other waste in London, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Participants in the Goodgym group collect litter from the riverbank to keep the River Thames free of plastic and other waste in London, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Participants in the Goodgym group warm up before running to collect litter to keep the River Thames free of plastic and other waste in London, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Participants in the Goodgym group exercise after collecting litter to keep the River Thames free of plastic and other waste in London, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Participants in the Goodgym group collect litter from the riverbank to keep the River Thames free of plastic and other waste in London, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
