Thunes, a Singapore-based cross-border payments company, announced its enhanced strategic partnership with Visa, the global titan in digital payments.
This collaboration is set to introduce new payment endpoints across vital markets in Asia and Africa, marking a significant step forward in the expansion of digital payment infrastructures.
Under this new agreement, Visa will integrate into Thunes’ extensive network, facilitating payments to over 108 types of digital wallets and bank accounts in several key countries, including Kenya, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Pakistan.
This initiative aims to leverage the growing popularity and convenience of digital wallets, which are projected to be used by over 60% of the global population by 2026.
Additionally, Thunes will incorporate Visa Direct’s push-to-card capability, allowing for rapid payouts to eligible Visa cards and accounts in more than 190 countries and territories worldwide.
This move is part of Visa’s broader strategy to tap into the $200 trillion global money movement market, which encompasses business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), peer-to-peer (P2P), and government disbursements.
Chris Newkirk, Global Head of Commercial & Money Movement Solutions at Visa, emphasized the importance of expanding the payment ecosystem to include bank accounts, cards, and wallets.
“At Visa, we’re building the infrastructure to enable our partners to move money from any endpoint, to any endpoint, seamlessly,” Newkirk said. “Together with Thunes, we’re broadening the payment ecosystem, ultimately bringing more streamlined payouts capabilities to our joint clients.”
The partnership also reflects a shared vision between the two companies for enhancing B2B cross-border payments. Floris de Kort, CEO of Thunes, highlighted the collaborative effort in engaging with each other’s networks, corridors, and payment methods as payments continue to digitize.
“There is a crystal clear, untapped opportunity for B2B cross-border payments at scale, and Thunes is delighted to work with Visa to enable these new payment flows,” de Kort added.
This latest initiative builds on the existing collaboration between Thunes and Visa, which began in October 2022 to extend Visa Direct’s reach to 1.5 billion wallets. Thunes, a company that enables customers to accept and pay in real time, facilitates payments in 84 currencies across 133 countries using over 550 payment methods, including 129 mobile wallets.
With offices in 14 locations worldwide, including Beijing, Nairobi, and London, Thunes continues to play a pivotal role in the global payments landscape.