Adyen Plans Larger India Expansion as Dutch Fintech Bets on Cross-Border Payments

Adyen Plans Larger India Expansion as Dutch Fintech Bets on Cross-Border Payments and Agentic Commerce

Dutch payments company Adyen is preparing to expand its India operations further, increasing local hiring and investment as it positions the country as a long-term growth market for domestic payments, cross-border commerce and emerging AI-driven agentic transactions.

The Amsterdam-headquartered fintech has rapidly increased its Indian presence since receiving key regulatory approvals in 2024, growing its local workforce roughly tenfold to around 120 employees by mid-2026.

Adyen now plans to add more people and deepen local capabilities as multinational companies expand into India while Indian businesses increasingly sell to customers overseas.

The strategy gives Adyen exposure to two simultaneous payment flows: international companies entering India's fast-growing digital economy and Indian companies expanding across global markets.

At the same time, the company is preparing for a potentially larger structural shift in commerce as artificial-intelligence agents begin performing transactions on behalf of consumers.

India's work on agentic payments through UPI could make the country an important testing ground for this next generation of digital commerce.

Adyen Sees India as a Long-Term Growth Market

Adyen's Asia-Pacific President Gary Yang has described India as a market with substantial long-term opportunity.

The company isn't approaching the country only as a domestic payment-processing market.

Its broader strategy revolves around helping businesses move between:

India

and:

international markets.

That includes multinational companies entering India and Indian businesses expanding overseas.

The model is particularly relevant as India's economy becomes more deeply integrated with global digital commerce.

India Team Has Expanded to Around 120 Employees

Adyen has increased its Indian workforce significantly.

Its local team reached approximately:

120 employees by mid-2026.

That represents roughly a:

tenfold increase

since the company began materially expanding its local operations after obtaining regulatory approvals.

The company intends to continue hiring as it builds out:

engineering,

commercial,

compliance,

product,

and merchant-support capabilities.

For a global payments company, local staff are particularly important because payments regulation and consumer behaviour differ substantially between countries.

Regulatory Licences Enabled Adyen’s Expansion

A major turning point came in:

2024.

Adyen received Indian regulatory approvals allowing it to strengthen local payment processing.

The company has since built a domestic acquiring capability that allows merchants to accept Indian payments through its infrastructure.

Its platform can support:

domestic transactions,

cross-border transactions,

one-time payments,

and recurring payments

in Indian rupees.

This significantly expanded what Adyen could offer multinational customers operating in India.

Adyen Supports UPI and RuPay Alongside Global Cards

Adyen's Indian platform supports major domestic payment methods including:

UPI

and:

RuPay.

It also supports international card networks such as:

Visa,

Mastercard,

and American Express.

The objective is to give large merchants one platform through which they can manage both local and international payment methods.

For global businesses, this reduces the need to maintain separate integrations with different payment providers in each country.

India Requires Strong Local Payments Integration

A global payment platform cannot succeed in India by offering only international credit cards.

Indian consumers increasingly expect payment options including:

UPI,

debit cards,

RuPay,

digital wallets,

and other local methods.

UPI has become particularly important.

The system processed approximately:

24.51 billion transactions in August 2026

worth about:

₹29.82 trillion, or roughly $314 billion.

Its enormous scale means that any payment provider targeting India needs meaningful UPI capabilities.

Cross-Border Commerce Is Central to Adyen’s Strategy

Adyen sees growing cross-border activity as one of its largest opportunities.

More multinational companies are entering India to access:

consumers,

digital services,

technology talent,

and enterprise demand.

At the same time, Indian companies are increasingly expanding into:

North America,

Europe,

Southeast Asia,

the Middle East,

and other international markets.

Both trends create payment complexity.

Companies need to accept different currencies and payment methods while complying with local regulations in multiple jurisdictions.

Indian Companies Are Becoming More Global

The outbound opportunity is increasingly important.

Indian companies in categories such as:

software,

hospitality,

travel,

consumer internet,

e-commerce,

and digital services

are expanding internationally.

Adyen already works with India-origin companies including:

OYO

as they operate across multiple markets.

A unified payment platform allows these businesses to manage international transactions through a common technical infrastructure.

That can simplify reconciliation, reporting and payment optimisation.

Global Companies Also Need India-Specific Payments

The opportunity works in the opposite direction as well.

Adyen serves global businesses including:

Microsoft

and:

Uber.

Companies of this scale generally want consistent payment infrastructure across many countries.

However, entering India requires them to comply with:

local payment rules,

data requirements,

payment-method preferences,

and financial regulations.

Adyen's local licences allow it to provide Indian processing while connecting those transactions to the merchant's broader global payments setup.

India Can Become a Two-Way Payments Hub

This creates a strategic positioning opportunity.

Adyen can potentially sit between:

global companies entering India

and:

Indian companies going global.

That makes cross-border commerce more important than simply winning domestic checkout volume.

A payment provider that supports businesses across multiple markets can become deeply embedded in:

treasury,

fraud management,

reconciliation,

customer experience,

and revenue optimisation.

This creates stronger merchant relationships than a simple transaction-processing service.

Adyen’s India Pre-Tax Income More Than Doubled

Adyen's India operations are already showing financial growth.

Pre-tax income from the country more than doubled year-on-year to approximately:

€3.18 million in 2025.

The absolute contribution remains small relative to Adyen's global business.

However, the growth indicates that the company's investment in local infrastructure is beginning to generate measurable financial returns.

India remains at an early stage within Adyen's global expansion strategy.

Adyen Is Taking a Different Path From Some Global Rivals

India's payments market has historically been difficult for international fintech companies.

Regulation is complex.

Competition is intense.

Domestic payment systems are highly developed.

Margins can also be lower than in some international markets.

Some global payment companies have therefore reduced parts of their Indian operations or focused more narrowly on cross-border services.

Adyen is taking the opposite approach by increasing its local presence.

Stripe Has Reduced Its India Domestic Payments Exposure

Stripe has previously scaled back the availability of certain domestic payment services in India as regulatory requirements became more demanding.

Its experience illustrated the difficulty global fintech companies can face when attempting to serve Indian merchants without a sufficiently localised regulatory structure.

Adyen's approach has been to invest in licences, infrastructure and compliance before accelerating commercial expansion.

That creates higher upfront costs but potentially a more durable operating position.

PayPal Exited Domestic India Payments Earlier

PayPal also exited its domestic India payments business several years ago while continuing to focus on cross-border transactions.

That decision reflected the intense competition and economics of India's domestic payment market.

Adyen's expansion therefore represents a notable strategic contrast.

Instead of avoiding local acquiring, it is integrating domestic payments with its international platform.

The company believes this can create stronger value for large merchants with operations across several countries.

Data Localisation Is a Critical Requirement

India requires payment companies to comply with strict data-storage and regulatory requirements.

Payments data localisation has been one of the most important compliance issues for international processors.

Adyen has adapted its infrastructure to meet Indian regulatory requirements.

This local compliance layer is essential because large global merchants increasingly want both:

international consistency

and:

country-specific regulatory compliance.

A payments provider that can deliver both has a stronger competitive position.

Adyen Competes on Unified Infrastructure

Adyen's central proposition is a:

single global payments platform.

Its infrastructure combines areas such as:

payment processing,

acquiring,

risk management,

data,

and financial products.

For multinational merchants, this can reduce the complexity created by using many separate payment providers.

One technical integration can potentially support operations across multiple countries and payment methods.

This model becomes particularly valuable as businesses expand internationally.

Payment Data Can Improve Merchant Decisions

A unified payment system can also give merchants a more complete view of transactions.

Companies can analyse:

authorisation rates,

customer behaviour,

payment failures,

fraud,

chargebacks,

and geographic differences

through one dataset.

That information can then be used to improve checkout performance.

For large merchants processing millions of transactions, even small increases in payment approval rates can produce meaningful revenue gains.

Payments Are Becoming a Strategic Business Function

Adyen increasingly argues that payments should not be viewed merely as:

a cost centre.

Payments can influence:

conversion,

customer experience,

international expansion,

fraud losses,

and revenue.

A customer who wants to make a purchase but encounters an unsupported payment method or failed transaction may abandon the sale.

Optimising payment infrastructure can therefore directly affect commercial performance.

India’s Cross-Border Payments Market Is Expanding

India is simultaneously seeking to make its own payment infrastructure more international.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for:

UPI to connect with more national payment systems around the world.

UPI is already available or connected in multiple international markets.

Greater interoperability could make it easier for:

Indian travellers,

diaspora communities,

merchants,

and businesses

to move money across borders.

That trend aligns closely with Adyen's cross-border strategy.

UPI Is Already Connected With Multiple Countries

India has been expanding UPI internationally through partnerships and payment-system links.

UPI currently has a presence in or connectivity with several markets including:

Singapore,

the UAE,

France,

and Nepal.

One of the most significant examples is the linkage between:

UPI and Singapore's PayNow.

The connection enables faster transfers using identifiers such as mobile numbers and payment IDs.

Similar arrangements could gradually reduce friction in international payments.

Lower Cross-Border Friction Could Benefit Merchants

Cross-border payments remain significantly more complex than domestic transactions.

They can involve:

currency conversion,

multiple banks,

intermediaries,

compliance checks,

settlement delays,

and higher fees.

Businesses expanding internationally therefore need payment infrastructure capable of managing this complexity.

Adyen's global acquiring footprint is designed to help merchants process transactions closer to their customers rather than routing everything through a single foreign location.

Local Acquiring Can Improve Approval Rates

One advantage of local acquiring is the potential for higher:

payment authorisation rates.

A transaction processed domestically can sometimes be less likely to be rejected than one routed internationally.

Local processing may also reduce:

cross-border fees

and improve:

settlement economics.

For merchants operating at large scale, these improvements can materially affect profitability.

This is one reason Adyen invests in licences across individual markets.

Agentic Commerce Is Emerging as the Next Opportunity

Beyond conventional digital payments, Adyen is also examining:

agentic commerce.

Agentic commerce refers to transactions in which artificial-intelligence agents perform parts of the shopping or payment process on behalf of a user.

Instead of a consumer manually searching for a product, comparing options and checking out, an AI agent could potentially complete several of those tasks automatically.

This creates an entirely new set of requirements for payment infrastructure.

AI Agents Could Eventually Make Purchases for Consumers

A consumer could instruct an AI assistant to:

find a flight under a certain price,

reorder household products,

pay a utility bill,

book a hotel,

or buy groceries.

The AI could evaluate available options and complete the transaction within rules established by the consumer.

This changes the traditional checkout relationship.

The merchant may increasingly interact with:

an AI agent

rather than directly with:

the human shopper.

Payment providers will need to verify that the agent has genuine authority to transact.

India Is Developing Agentic Payments on UPI

India is already working on infrastructure that could support such transactions.

The country's payments ecosystem is developing a framework commonly referred to as the:

Unified Agent Protocol.

The system is intended to allow AI agents to initiate certain payments through UPI under predefined conditions.

Early use cases are expected to focus on:

small,

routine,

and low-risk transactions.

The objective is to reduce the need for consumers to manually approve every individual purchase.

UPI Circle Could Help Enable Delegated Payments

Existing UPI mechanisms could form part of the architecture.

One is:

UPI Circle.

The feature allows a primary user to delegate payment authority within defined limits.

A similar concept can potentially be extended to AI agents.

The customer could define:

how much an agent may spend,

which merchants it may use,

what categories are permitted,

and how frequently transactions can occur.

That creates controlled automation rather than unrestricted payment authority.

Reserve Pay Could Support AI Transactions

Another mechanism under consideration is:

Reserve Pay.

A customer could potentially reserve or block a specific amount of funds for use by an AI agent.

This limits the financial exposure.

For example, a consumer could authorise an agent to spend up to:

₹2,000

within a particular period.

The agent could then execute qualifying purchases without requesting approval for every transaction.

Such controls will be essential for consumer trust.

Liability Rules Will Be Critical

Agentic commerce creates new questions around:

liability.

If an AI agent makes the wrong purchase, who is responsible?

Potential parties include:

the consumer,

the AI provider,

the merchant,

the bank,

and the payment network.

Regulators and payment companies will need clear frameworks governing:

consent,

authentication,

disputes,

refunds,

fraud,

and errors.

Without those safeguards, consumers may hesitate to delegate meaningful spending authority to software.

Identity Is Another Major Challenge

Traditional digital payments generally authenticate:

a human user.

Agentic commerce adds another layer.

The payment system needs to know:

which AI agent is acting,

which person authorised it,

what permissions were granted,

and whether the transaction remains within those permissions.

This creates a new form of identity infrastructure linking:

humans,

software agents,

merchants,

and financial accounts.

Payments companies could become important participants in establishing that trust layer.

Adyen Sees Agentic Commerce as a New Payments Channel

For Adyen, AI agents could create another transaction channel similar to the emergence of:

mobile commerce

or:

in-app payments.

When smartphones transformed online shopping, payment infrastructure had to adapt to smaller screens, apps, digital wallets and new authentication methods.

Agentic commerce could create an equally significant shift.

The checkout may increasingly happen through machine-to-machine interaction rather than a conventional website interface.

Merchant Infrastructure Will Need to Recognise AI Agents

Businesses will need systems capable of distinguishing between:

legitimate authorised agents

and:

malicious automated activity.

Today, many merchants treat automated traffic as potentially suspicious.

In an agentic-commerce environment, some automated traffic may represent highly valuable customers.

Merchants will therefore need new ways to authenticate trusted AI agents.

Payments data could become one mechanism for establishing whether an agent is authorised to complete a transaction.

Fraud Prevention Will Become More Complex

AI-driven commerce will also create new fraud risks.

Criminals could attempt to:

impersonate legitimate agents,

manipulate agent instructions,

steal delegated credentials,

or redirect automated purchases.

Fraud systems will therefore need to become more sophisticated.

Adyen already uses data and machine learning to detect suspicious payment behaviour.

Agentic commerce could make those capabilities even more important.

India Could Become an Important Testing Ground

India has several characteristics that could make it an important market for agentic payments.

It already has:

massive digital-payment adoption,

UPI infrastructure,

strong fintech participation,

and a large base of digitally active consumers.

UPI's high transaction frequency also means new payment technologies can potentially reach enormous scale quickly.

If India successfully implements agentic payment protocols, global payment companies could learn from the market and apply similar models elsewhere.

Adyen Can Use India as Both Market and Innovation Hub

Adyen's local expansion therefore has a broader strategic dimension.

India is not only:

a customer market.

It is also a major:

technology,

engineering,

and fintech innovation ecosystem.

Building larger teams locally gives Adyen closer access to developments in areas such as:

UPI,

digital identity,

AI commerce,

and real-time payments.

That can influence products used beyond India.

India's Payments Infrastructure Has Become Globally Important

India's digital public infrastructure has attracted international attention because of its scale.

UPI is now the world's largest retail fast-payment system by transaction volume.

Its architecture demonstrates how interoperable real-time payments can reach hundreds of millions of users.

India is increasingly seeking to export elements of this payments expertise.

For global fintech companies, understanding these systems has become strategically valuable.

Competition in Indian Payments Remains Intense

Adyen will still face formidable competition.

India's payments market includes:

PhonePe,

Google Pay,

Paytm,

Razorpay,

Cashfree,

Pine Labs,

PayU,

banks,

card networks,

and other payment processors.

Many competitors have strong local distribution and merchant relationships.

Adyen's advantage is therefore unlikely to come from competing for every small merchant.

Its focus remains primarily on larger businesses with complex global payment requirements.

Enterprise Merchants Are Adyen’s Core Target

Adyen is best known for serving:

large enterprises

rather than focusing exclusively on micro-merchants.

Its global customer base includes major technology, retail, mobility and digital-platform companies.

These merchants value capabilities such as:

high payment volumes,

international acquiring,

fraud management,

and consolidated data.

India's growing number of large digital businesses creates a bigger addressable enterprise market.

International Expansion Creates Sticky Merchant Relationships

When a payment platform helps a merchant operate in many countries, switching providers becomes more complicated.

The merchant may have integrated:

checkout systems,

fraud rules,

reporting,

settlements,

and finance operations

with the platform.

That can create a highly durable commercial relationship.

Cross-border expansion therefore isn't only a source of transaction volume for Adyen.

It can also improve customer retention.

Global Business Continues to Grow

Adyen entered its India expansion phase while its broader business remained in growth mode.

The company reported approximately:

€1.3 billion in net revenue for the first half of 2026,

an increase of around:

21%.

It also raised its 2026 net-revenue growth outlook to:

21%–23%.

The company continues to invest in expansion while maintaining a strong position among global enterprise payment processors.

Adyen Is Investing Beyond Core Payments

The company has also broadened its technology portfolio.

In 2026, Adyen completed its first acquisitions in roughly two decades, acquiring:

Talon.One

and:

Orb.

These deals expand its capabilities in adjacent areas such as:

customer incentives,

pricing,

and billing infrastructure.

Adyen has nevertheless indicated that its broader strategy remains centred on building and integrating technology rather than pursuing large-scale consolidation.

India Expansion Fits Adyen’s Global Model

The Indian strategy is consistent with Adyen's broader approach.

The company typically enters markets where large merchants need:

local acquiring

combined with:

global infrastructure.

It then builds licences and domestic processing capabilities while keeping the merchant-facing technology unified.

India's size makes the potential rewards particularly large.

However, regulatory complexity means execution will remain demanding.

Compliance Will Remain a Competitive Advantage

India's payment rules will continue evolving.

Regulators are increasingly focused on:

data governance,

cybersecurity,

merchant due diligence,

consumer protection,

and digital-payment resilience.

Global companies that invest heavily in compliance can turn these requirements into a barrier to entry.

Adyen's decision to build locally suggests it believes regulatory capability can become part of its competitive advantage rather than simply a cost.

Cross-Border Payments Could Become More Strategic

As Indian companies globalise, payment infrastructure increasingly influences international expansion.

A company entering ten countries must answer questions about:

currency,

payment methods,

fraud,

settlement,

tax,

and regulatory compliance.

A unified global payments partner can reduce some of that complexity.

Adyen is betting that this need will become more valuable as India's digital businesses move beyond the domestic market.

Agentic Commerce Adds a Longer-Term Growth Option

The AI opportunity is less mature than conventional cross-border payments.

Agentic payments are still being designed.

Consumer behaviour remains uncertain.

Regulation is still developing.

However, payment infrastructure must often be built before a new commerce model can scale.

Adyen's interest therefore represents a longer-term strategic bet rather than a large existing revenue stream.

If AI agents become meaningful economic actors, payment companies could occupy an important position in the transaction layer.

Conclusion

Adyen is planning a larger expansion in India as the Dutch fintech company looks to capture growth from domestic digital payments, rising cross-border commerce and the emerging market for AI-driven agentic transactions.

The company has increased its Indian workforce roughly tenfold to around 120 employees by mid-2026 after obtaining important regulatory approvals in 2024, and it plans to continue hiring as its local business expands.

Adyen's India strategy is built around a two-way commercial opportunity: helping global companies enter India while enabling Indian businesses to expand internationally. Its local platform now supports payment methods including UPI and RuPay alongside Visa, Mastercard and American Express, allowing enterprise merchants to manage domestic and international payments through a unified infrastructure.

The longer-term opportunity could be even more significant.

India is developing frameworks that may allow AI agents to execute low-value UPI transactions within limits established by consumers, potentially making the country one of the earliest large-scale markets for agentic payments.

For Adyen, that creates a strategic overlap between two important trends: India's growing importance in global commerce and the emergence of software agents as a new type of participant in digital transactions.

The company's decision to keep expanding locally suggests it views India not simply as another payments market, but as a potential hub for the next phase of global and AI-enabled commerce.