The US-founded payments and financial services company Stripe is placing a key leadership role in its Singapore office to drive its Asia-Pacific business and growth from the region.
Abhinav Tiwari, who has been shuttling between Singapore and Seattle in the first five months of the year, will now be located in Singapore permanently to be closer to Stripe’s customers in the region.
“Proximity helps. Like being able to call a customer and not be on the West Coast of the US or being able to go see a customer face-to-face and ask them what’s going on so that we can make those changes for our product,” Tiwari said.
He said that Stripe identifies Asia, particularly Southeast Asia, as a region that represents the most complexity both in terms of payment methods and operating environment.
The 41-year-old, who was promoted to become Stripe’s head of global product at the start of this year, added that his move to Singapore is “reflective of growth in the region, but also of what’s to come”.
Tiwari revealed that, for example, he and his team have been working on a product with GCash, the largest e-wallet in the Philippines, that is expected to launch by the end of June.
He added that Stripe is also the payment provider for many “scale-up AI companies” and cited Manus AI as a client Stripe works with. In recent years, Singapore has also become a base for AI startups to expand either regionally or internationally.
Stripe built its business on providing programmable solutions that helped merchants and developers manage transactions, billings, and fight fraud.
In Asia, Tiwari said that he sees opportunities to further develop Stripe’s multi-currency presentment and settlement, and adaptive pricing offerings for the Asian market. These solutions deal with cross-border transactions.
