SEE: PayPal enters China, but what about Southeast Asia?
The short runway between the two latest rounds was not initially planned, says CEO Simon Black in an interview with The Edge Singapore. “The investment we announced last June was on the radar of a wider group of potential investors and the interest was so strong, we decided to bring forward our plans,” says Black, who is based in the UK.

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Black also oversaw PPRO’s acquisition of Allpago, a major provider of payment and gateway services in Latin America, in June 2019. Prior to the acquisition, Allpago reportedly covered 90% of the regional market. According to a press release, PPRO doubled transaction volumes y-o-y in 4Q2020, expanded its global team by 60% in the last 12 months and developed new strategic partnerships in Indonesia and Singapore. While the company is based in London, PPRO has in Singapore its APAC headquarters, with a team of 20 here. In November 2019, PPRO appointed Kelvin Phua, formerly of PayPal, as its global head of payment networks. Globally, the company hires more than 300 staff, and PPRO is looking to build out another location in Asia, says Black. This is in addition to “two to three” potential markets the company wishes to enter.