PF Toast Announces Restaurant Recovery Fund; Stripe Growing Its Asia Presence: News Roundup

PaymentFacilitator’s News Roundup is a curated mix of the past week’s news and articles from around the web, including company announcements, global payments news, and other coverage and analysis of topics relevant to payment facilitators.

Opportunity in Asia

Leading payments provider Stripe has boosted its staff in Asia by 40% this year. According to a company executive, Stripe now has more than 200 employees in the region to support its expansion there. It plans to grow in Southeast Asia, Japan, China and India, and launched a pilot project in Indonesia earlier this year. From Reuters.

Paytm’s leader says the rapid shift to digital technology resulting from the pandemic is a “once in a lifetime opportunity” for India’s entrepreneurs. The PF’s CEO, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, told an audience at the Singapore FinTech Festival that increased internet use has subsequently increased the need for technology tools in developing countries. This is a need that entrepreneurs close to those developing markets – particularly those located in India – will be well positioned to serve. From CNBC.

Digital Download

The government of Sweden is actively exploring the idea of moving to a digital currency. The country is already the most cashless society in the world, with less than 10% of all payments made in cash. The government expects to complete its feasibility analysis within the next two years. From Bloomberg.

India’s centralized UPI payments platform has been a big reason for the growth of digital transactions there. Growth in UPI volume has far outpaced that of wallet payments. Digital payments players will likely need to diversify to remain competitive in this intensely competitive environment. But despite the continued rise of digital transactions, the amount of cash held by the Indian public is at an all-time high, likely because consumers still like to use it for day-to-day transactions. From Quartz India.