NEW YORK — Alipay, China's online and mobile payment platform giant operated by Ant Financial Services Group, announced Tuesday that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Han Feng Inc, a leading food supplier for Chinese restaurants and supermarkets in the United States.

The MoU will enable Han Feng's merchant partners to accept payment via Alipay, which currently has more than 520 million active users in China alone.

Through the partnership, Alipay will empower Han Feng's 14,000 merchants to better serve and connect with Chinese consumers in North America, starting with New York and North Carolina. Alipay will also enable users to find merchants nearby, receive coupons and make purchase decisions through the app's "Discover" function.

"Chinese consumers leverage Alipay as a Lifestyle Enabler and our partnership with Han Feng provides an experience that combines discovery and payment," said Souheil Badran, president of Alipay North America.

"By pairing Han Feng's extensive reach within the Chinese consumer market with the familiarity of the Alipay platform, both Chinese consumers and the merchants that provide them with services will benefit from this partnership," Badran added.

"We are thrilled to partner with Alipay as Han Feng's customer base offers a perfect initiating platform to promote Alipay services in the United States. By maximizing Alipay's visibility to the US consumer, we are also bringing our merchant partners access to a new revenue stream," said Jonathan Ni, CFO of Han Feng Inc.