Stripe sees bigger role for S’pore in developing new payments technology for the world

What do selling through AI agents and payment networks that move billions of dollars a year have in common? Singapore.

“At Stripe Singapore, we are building infrastructure that will power the next era of commerce and shipping it to the world,” said Sarita Singh, the company’s regional head for South-east Asia, Greater China, and South Korea.

Ten years after establishing its regional base here, the payments and financial infrastructure firm wants to make the city-state an even more important hub for its global operations. 

Products developed or co-developed by the Singapore-based global product team include agentic commerce solutions, which enable merchants to be easily found and bought by agents, said Singh. 

This means customers could use AI assistants to discover products, make recommendations and complete purchases on their behalf, opening new channels for businesses to reach buyers. 

The Singapore team also built and operates more than eight card networks, which process billions of dollars per year for merchants across Asia-Pacific and Europe, Middle East and Africa.

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The team’s work covers the systems behind card payments, from setting up cards for digital use to ensuring transactions are processed securely and reliably at a global scale.

Businesses using Stripe generated US$1.9 trillion (S$2.4 trillion) in payment volume in 2025, up 34 per cent from 2024, according to its February annual letter. It serves more than 500 million businesses directly or indirectly through platforms, ranging from large corporations to start-ups. 

According to Stripe, more than 80,000 Singapore businesses and solo entrepreneurs are on its platform; 40 per cent joined in 2025. 

Local, regional growth

Stripe’s increased focus on Singapore comes as digital payments and trade continue to grow across the region.

In Singapore, digital payments reached a transaction value of US$39.37 billion in 2023, noted a 2026 report by professional services firm PwC Singapore and the Singapore FinTech Association. 

That figure is projected to grow to over US$113 billion by 2030, said the same report.

According to a 2024 note by the United Nations Trade and Development, Asia-Pacific accounted for a quarter of all global digital trade, reaching US$958 billion in 2022 and growing at 9 per cent per year. This is well above the global average of 6.8 per cent.

“The infrastructure Asia built – from real-time rails to mobile-first wallets – is precisely the foundation the AI era demands,” said Singh. 

She added: “The economy is now re-platforming around AI that doesn’t just know things, but does things: planning, purchasing, negotiating, and running workflows autonomously.”

For companies, this creates a dual imperative: using AI to transform operations, and making the business fully legible and usable by AI agents.

“It’s why Stripe is accelerating our product roadmap for Asia,” Singh said.

In August, Stripe and DBS Bank announced a strategic partnership aimed at accelerating agentic commerce and expanding cross-border payment infrastructure across Asia.

Stripe’s head of global product, Abhinav Tiwari, also relocated to Singapore this year to be closer to customers in the region.

This was produced in partnership with the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Global Finance & Technology Network.

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