Indonesia's Xendit expands to Malaysia with investment in Payex

Xendit Group director Rifai Taberi (left), cofounder and COO Tessa Wijaya (middle) and director Mikiko Steven (right) pose for a photo on Jan 12, 2022. - The Jakarta Post

JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network): Indonesian financial technology company Xendit has established a foothold in Malaysia as it seeks to build a presence across South-East Asia.

“So that Xendit can take Indonesia to the global stage, we consider it necessary to have a presence in multiple South-East Asian countries,” Xendit cofounder and chief operating officer Tessa Wijaya said on Thursday (Jan 12).

The unicorn start-up has appointed Jason Siew to helm the Malaysian branch as general manager.

In the past, Siew served as CEO of WeChat Pay Malaysia — a mobile payment and digital wallet service belonging to Chinese tech giant WeChat.

“At Xendit, we prioritise a simple integrated system with an emphasis on speed and quality service. This is what we will be bringing to the Malaysian market,” said Siew, according to a Xendit press statement released on Wednesday.

The expansion was realised with an undisclosed amount invested in Malaysian company Payex, which, like Xendit, is a payment gateway provider.

“Payex is an early-stage company, and it supports micro, small and medium enterprises [MSMEs],” said Tessa, emphasising that the Payex investment was in line with Xendit’s ideas.

“We want to empower MSMEs not only in Indonesia but throughout Sout-East Asia,” she added.

Xendit was founded in 2015 and expanded to the Philippines four years later. A payment gateway links merchants with payment systems, such as e-wallets, credit cards and buy-now-pay-later services.

Using a payment gateway saves merchants the hassle of registering with each payment system provider individually and gives them access to multiple payment methods through one service.

Key to a payment gateway’s success is aggregating as many payment methods as possible under its umbrella, given that the absence of certain payment methods can keep potential customers from using a service.

Xendit claims to have more than 20 payment methods in its payment infrastructure and ecosystem. The firm said its regional expansion was one of four areas of focus in its business development in 2023, the other three being transaction security, financial literacy and digital economy growth.