The archive · Money & Fintech · Strategic decision · 2023–2025
Xendit's Malaysia bet: own a licensed gateway, then win 4,500 merchants
Xendit bet buying Bank Negara Malaysia-licensed Payex, not applying fresh, was the fastest route into Malaysia; the full acquisition closed in 2025.
Xendit · Payex
What the business is
Xendit is an Indonesia-founded, Y Combinator-mentored payments unicorn that provides payment infrastructure across Southeast Asia, serving clients including Traveloka, Grab, Lazada and Samsung.
How it started
Founded in 2015 and mentored by Y Combinator, Xendit grew from Indonesia into the Philippines (2020), Thailand (2024) and other regional markets, and received backing from Malaysia's Penjana Kapital programme in 2021 before entering Malaysia itself.
What happened
Xendit entered Malaysia in early 2023 through a strategic investment in Payex, a locally licensed payment gateway. The full acquisition was completed in 2025 and announced at the Selangor Smart City and Digital Economy Convention, after which Payex was rebranded as Xendit Malaysia and moved onto Xendit's domain and regional technology framework.
How it ended up
Operating under Payex's Bank Negara Malaysia licence, Xendit Malaysia reports more than 4,500 onboarded local businesses and over RM5 billion (about US$1.05 billion) in processed volume, with plans to grow its team, partnerships and merchant education.
Background
Xendit is an Indonesia-founded payments company, mentored by Y Combinator and now a unicorn, that builds payment infrastructure for Southeast Asia, serving clients such as Traveloka, Grab, Lazada and Samsung across Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.
Its Malaysia bet was that owning a locally licensed gateway was cheaper than applying afresh: rather than build a Bank Negara Malaysia licence from scratch, Xendit made a strategic investment in Payex, an established licensed gateway, in early 2023.
The full acquisition was completed in 2025 and announced at the Selangor Smart City and Digital Economy Convention. Payex was rebranded as Xendit Malaysia and moved onto Xendit's domain, letting the company run its regional technology under a local licence.
Since entering Malaysia, Xendit says it has onboarded more than 4,500 local businesses and processed over RM5 billion (about US$1.05 billion), positioning its cross-border rails to Indonesia, the Philippines and beyond as the reason Malaysian merchants should pick it over local-only rivals.
What has to be true
- Malaysia's Bank Negara licensing regime makes a foreign gateway's direct entry slow, so owning an already-licensed operator collapsed years of regulatory work.
- The 2023 investment was a two-year running start: Xendit could learn the market and integrate before it paid full price for ownership.
- Cross-border payments are Xendit's differentiator — Malaysian merchants get one API reaching Indonesia, the Philippines and other regional markets.
- Xendit already had Malaysian goodwill to build on, including a 2021 investment from the government's Penjana Kapital programme.
What can be applied
In regulated payments the licence is the moat: Xendit invested in Payex first, then inherited compliance, merchants and a regulator-facing team when it bought the rest.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-05, Xendit Malaysia is operating under Payex's Bank Negara Malaysia licence, having completed its rebrand, and reports more than 4,500 onboarded businesses and over RM5 billion in processed payment volume since entering the country. The company says it plans to keep expanding its Malaysian team, partnerships and educational initiatives, while continuing its wider Southeast Asia push across Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Sources
- Xendit Completes Full Acquisition of Malaysia's Payex
- Deals in brief: Tim Draper invests in Ryder, Verta raises seed funding, Xendit acquires Payex, and more
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