Payoneer bets big on India with Gurugram innovation hub, eyes country among top three global markets

Global financial technology company Payoneer inaugurated its innovation hub in Gurugram on Monday, deepening its India presence as it bets on the country's tech talent and fast-growing fintech ecosystem while transforming into an AI-native company.

The Nasdaq-listed firm plans to expand the Delhi NCR centre to around 300 employees by the end of the year, with teams spanning engineering, artificial intelligence, product development, compliance, workforce management, and business operations. The company stated that the India team will own the complete product development lifecycle—from design and development to deployment and support for products that serve customers across global markets.

"India is central to how we are building Payoneer's future," said Oren Ryngler, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Payoneer.


The company, founded in 2005, recognised for its cross-border payments and financial services platform and workforce management services, serves over two million businesses globally. It processed $87.5 billion in payment volume in 2025, held $7.6 billion in customer funds and crossed $1 billion in annual revenue last year.

While Payoneer is widely known as a cross-border payments company, executives said the firm's ambition is to become a broader financial infrastructure provider for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) expanding internationally. “We compete primarily with banks that typically underserve these customers. The company’s goal is to provide the financial infrastructure that businesses need as they grow globally," said Gaurav Gupta, Senior Vice President and Platform Site Leader-India, during the inauguration of the Gurugram facility.


India to power Payoneer's AI transformation
Gupta added that the Gurugram facility will play a key role in Payoneer's transition into an AI-native technology company. According to Gupta, the company chose India because of its deep engineering talent, mature fintech ecosystem, and expertise in building large-scale digital platforms. “We are completely transforming ourselves into an AI-native technology company," he said, adding that the talent pool available in India allows the company to build enterprise-scale products that serve customers globally.

The company's Gurugram centre will house AI engineers, data scientists, backend and frontend developers, product managers, and support teams.

Payoneer already operates a Bengaluru office, which has been focused on growth and operations for over nine years. The new Gurugram hub will complement that presence by leading technology development, AI innovation, and product engineering, the company said.

Gupta added that the India team has been given end-to-end ownership of products rather than functioning as a support centre, with local leadership empowered to make key product decisions while collaborating with global teams.


AI-led products for lending and onboarding
Payoneer officials added that artificial intelligence is already being integrated across several products being developed in India.

One of the company's working capital offerings is being completely rewritten using AI, which Gupta said has increased software development productivity by nearly ten times.

The company is also using AI to automate customer onboarding through OCR-enabled verification of documents such as PAN and Aadhaar cards, helping perform fraud checks and extract customer information across nearly 190 countries.

Beyond onboarding, Payoneer is developing AI models that assess the risk profile of businesses based on transaction data generated on its platform, enabling more informed working capital decisions.

Gupta said the company is leveraging its proprietary transaction data and insights from enterprise marketplaces it partners with to improve these models.

Focus remains on globally ambitious MSMEs
Responding to a question from ET Online on how Payoneer plans to serve India's predominantly informal MSME sector, where most micro-enterprises lack formal financial footprints, Gupta said the firm's immediate focus remains on businesses with international ambitions. He added that Payoneer works with businesses aspiring to sell globally, including many solopreneurs and micro-enterprises, helping them access international customers, receive payments in multiple currencies, and manage cross-border financial operations.

He said the company also aims to help offline businesses become digital businesses capable of serving overseas markets. However, Payoneer's core customer base comprises businesses with relatively more sophisticated cross-border requirements, typically those generating annual revenues ranging from around $500,000 to several million dollars.

Gupta added that India's expertise in digital lending and AI is influencing products being built for Payoneer's global platform. The company is incorporating AI-powered risk assessment models and working capital capabilities that could help better understand the credit profile of small businesses using its ecosystem.

Notably, the company recently received in-principle authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India to operate as a Payment Aggregator, a move company executives said will enable it to offer a broader suite of services to Indian customers.

India offers a different proposition from Singapore, Dubai
Asked how India compares with fintech hubs such as Singapore and Dubai, Adam Cohen, Chief Growth Officer at Payoneer, said the company views India less as an incorporation hub and more as a source of entrepreneurship, innovation and engineering talent. While businesses often establish entities in jurisdictions such as Singapore or the UAE as they expand globally, India remains their home market where entrepreneurs build and innovate, he said.

Cohen lauded India's engineering talent and education ecosystem, noting that it has produced several global tech leaders. However, to enhance the ease of doing business, he suggested that more streamlined and easier-to-navigate regulations could further encourage innovation. "The smoother regulation is, the better it will be for innovation," he said, while highlighting that regulators also have the responsibility of protecting consumers, businesses and data.

Betting big on AI, Gupta further said that the company expects AI to create more opportunities rather than reduce hiring. "We see AI as an opportunity to do more, not less," he said, adding that the company plans to continue expanding its engineering workforce while maintaining a high hiring bar.

Looking ahead, Gupta said Payoneer aims to make India one of its top three global markets while positioning the Gurugram centre as a long-term innovation engine for the company's worldwide AI and fintech platform.