Pay the Right Way: Papaya Global’s Unique Paytech is Reshaping the Payments Landscape

Throughout history, technology has had a profound impact on the financial sector.

The first transatlantic telegraph cable, completed in 1866, facilitated the transmission of financial information across borders – marking the beginning of FinTech 1.0. The introduction of ATMs in 1967 ushered in modern FinTech, also known as FinTech 2.0. FinTech 3.0 began in 2008 with the rise of FinTech startups, which started supplanting banks by directly providing services to the public and businesses.

One of these services is payments. A new subsection of FinTech companies – PayTechs – has exploded into the market in the past few years. The numbers are staggering:

• Payments have a market size of $240 tn
• PayTech companies make up 25% of FinTechs
• PayTechs are valued at over $2.17tn

The PayTech sector is booming across the globe. In 2022, for example, European PayTech companies raised 88 seed deals – a 14.8% share of total European seed deals. The total transaction value for European digital payments is projected to reach $1,722bn in 2023, with an estimated growth rate of 14.12% until 2027.

In Africa, the e-payments market is expected to grow by approximately 20% per year and reach around $40 billion by 2025. The adoption of e-wallets is growing throughout the continent, and PayTech companies are developing modern rails that enable faster and cheaper intra-Africa payments.

Digital payments in Asia-Pacific (APAC) – a region that has emerged as a global leader in the payments space – are expected to grow by 109% by 2025 and then by 76% from 2025 to 2030. According to James Faulkner, Head of Marketing & Partnerships at Onepay, “by 2025, Asia PayTech will surge past the $1 trillion mark, accounting for 50% of all transactions.”

Leading the transformation charge

The proliferation of PayTechs could have ripple effects across the entire payments ecosystem. A recent Ernst & Young report, “The rise of PayTech – Seven forces shaping the future of payments,“ tries to assess the ripple effects of PayTechs’ innovation across the most influential areas impacting payments today.

One of these areas is cross-border payments. “Cross-border payments tend to be slow, generate high transaction charges, and are considerably less transparent than domestic payments,” states the report. “However, with regulators laying the groundwork for these payments to be modernized, PayTechs are moving at pace to transform the cross-border payments business model and customer experience.“

Papaya Global, the only PayTech designed for cross-border payroll payments, is leading the transformation charge. Payroll providers typically outsource the payments to all-purpose payment companies, which use traditional rails to deliver the payments, causing a great deal of friction throughout the process. Papaya decided to go a different route.

To eliminate the friction, Papaya built the world’s first payroll-dedicated rails. Since our rails rely on Tier 1 banks such as JPMorgan and Citibank, we can ensure speedy payments. This allows Papaya clients to lock up payroll funds 7-10 days later than other payment companies require, decreasing their exposure to FX volatility and providing more financial flexibility.

While traditional rails are littered with transaction fees, usually deducted from the employees’ salaries, on Papaya’s rails all fees are known in advance. As a result, we can guarantee full value transfer, which means your employees receive every cent they are entitled to. And unlike the opaque processes other providers offer, Papaya clients can track payment data from start to finish on our self-service, user-friendly interface.

A single destination to manage your finances

Another user-friendly, self-service payment feature highlighted in recent years is digital wallets. EY’s report notes that digital wallets “are helping to significantly reduce payments transaction fees while offering customers a single destination to manage their finances.“ That’s certainly the case with Papaya’s digital wallets, which can be used to pay an entire global workforce, local tax authorities, and benefits vendors.

Each digital wallet holds one currency, but clients can open as many wallets as they need – all accessible under one single account – and divide the funds between them as they see fit. You can fund your virtual wallets using any major currencies (USD, GBP, EUR, AUD, CAD, HKD, or SGD). Our currency management offering supports more than 100 currencies, ensuring that payments are delivered in your employee’s local currency.

Looking ahead to how the future of payments will evolve, EY’s report stresses the importance of building PayTech solutions that enable stakeholders to grow their businesses, as opposed to an offering that’s limited to sending funds. “‘Value beyond payment‘ has been top of mind for many payment players as they look beyond transactions and focus on the holistic customer experience,” states the report. “By providing relevant services before and after payments, they’re evolving into ‘one-stop shops.‘”

Papaya Global embodies the one-stop shop concept. Our unique operating system unifies payroll and payments and leverages AI and automation to streamline every workforce management process: from hiring, onboarding, and managing all types of employees, through consolidating workforce data streams, to providing resources and access to in-house experts on global employment. The result is the best ROI in the market. Or, in other words, the best value beyond payment. Schedule a demo with our experts.