Netherlands-based TerraPay, a cross-border payments infrastructure developer, has hired Ritesh Pai to serve as the company’s senior vice president for product and payment solutions.
TerraPay claims that it’s a leader in offering seamless and secure cross-border real-time payments via “digital interoperability” across different financial instruments including mobile or online wallets and bank accounts.
As mentioned in a release, the global digital payment market volume is expected to grow from $79.3 billion in 2020 to $154.1 billion by 2025, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 14.2% (according to a report from MarketsandMarkets). The MENA region, Japan, and South Korea show “immense potential” for adopting digital payments.
Approximately 36% of global online shoppers now prefer to pay with digital wallets (compared to traditional payment methods). This reflects “a strong shift to cashless economies,” the release noted.
As stated in the announcement, Ritesh has worked extensively in retail, digital banking, and payments. He has joined TerraPay after serving as the Senior Group President & Chief Digital Officer at Yes Bank, where he was in charge of the bank’s digital transformation strategy.
Ritesh has also been involved with leading private banks and driving their digital strategy. He has previously worked at HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra and the RBL Bank.
Ambar Sur, Founder and CEO at TerraPay, stated:
“Ritesh’s rich knowledge and experience in the digital payments domain with his highly result oriented approach, makes him instrumental in our Solutions forte.”
Ritesh Pai remarked:
“The evolution of the payments industry continues to be driven by changes in technology and customer behavior. Our vision is to empower all regions – developed and underserved, with financial solutions enabling them to Send, Spend, Manage and Grow, by offering propositions that are outcome oriented. I look forward to my journey at TerraPay in driving this initiative.”
As reported in June 2020, TerraPay had teamed up with Visa to drive real-time payments interoperability. Through the partnership, both companies aim to develop and deliver solutions to drive repeat consumption of mobile wallets and digital currency for digital payments and remittances. The partnership is also part of Visa’s global strategy to open up Visa’s network and support a broad range of players that are developing new commerce experiences, and transitioning to digital channels.
As covered in March 2020, TerraPay was acquired by investors Prime Ventures and Partech Africa, and its management.
The exact amount involved in the acquisition has not been shared publicly.
These same group of investors, and IFC, a third investor, had also contributed €8.3 million (appr. $9.6 million) to help expand TerraPay’s operations.
Established in 2015, the Fintech company offers the technology infrastructure which allows firms to connect to digital wallets, banking institutions, government agencies, payment service providers, and funds transfer services at affordable rates.
The Fintech firm had noted that its platform has been developed to provide an interoperability solution which aims to address the fragmented payments space that ends up excluding vendors from credit card payment options.
