Hitachi Payment Services has launched a Digital Payments Innovation Hub with the aim of increasing collaboration with fintech start-ups across India and the wider Asia-Pacific region.
The launch, which extends Hitachi Group’s association with Plug and Play in Asia Pacific, will seek to provide start-ups with capital, integration with the Hitachi Payments’ stack, access to a wide customer network and a platform to help businesses scale up, the company said. Hitachi Group already has an existing association with Plug and Play in Japan and the United States.
Anuj Khosla, CEO of Digital Business, Hitachi Payment Services, said, “Hitachi Payments is committed towards innovating and introducing new technologies to enhance the overall merchant and customer digital payments journey. The Digital Payments Innovation Hub will help in building future-ready offerings in the digital payments arena. The collaboration aims at investing in, co-creating, and deploying cutting-edge digital payment and fintech solutions that cater to the evolving needs of businesses and consumers.
He added: “It is an exciting time for the Indian fintech ecosystem, and we look forward to working closely with Plug and Play and start-ups to drive growth and innovation in the payments industry.”
Earlier this year, Hitachi Payments received a payment aggregator licence from the Reserve Bank of India, allowing to further augment its digital solutions stack with various online payment solutions such as UPI, Netbanking, Cards and Wallets. This will enable its B2B customers to provide all digital payment products as well as other services services such as EMI, Paylater, BBPS and loyalty solutions to their merchants.
Jupe Tan, Managing Partner of Plug and Play APAC, said, “We are delighted to be working with Hitachi Payments and to be able to deepen our relationship with the overall Hitachi group. Our goal is to provide Hitachi Payments with a line-of-sight into the most innovative start-ups that are shaping the financial services industry across India and Asia Pacific.”
