SINGAPORE – Hong Kong-founded payments firm KPay aims to double the number of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) it serves in Singapore to 20,000 by 2026, amid fierce competition as they move to cashless payments.

The firm also wants to grow its Singapore and global headcount by 40 per cent each. Its current global workforce stands at 650.

It plans to hire more people in functions such as partnerships, ecosystem building and product in Singapore.

Speaking to The Straits Times at the firm’s Robinson Road office on Sept 2, its chief executive Davis Chan said: “SMEs play a vital role in Singapore’s economy, employing nearly 70 per cent of the local workforce and contributing close to half of the nation’s GDP. Many SMEs are at the early stages of their digital payments journey and are prioritising simplified operations and cost transparency.”

The targets come as the firm introduced an enhanced point-of-sale (POS) terminal, Terminal Pro, which offers faster transaction processing and real-time data synchronisation. The terminal can accept up to 20 payment methods and merchants can receive funds by the next business day.

The company first opened its Singapore office in 2024 and has operations in Hong Kong, Australia and Japan as well.

KPay saw strong adoption in the food and beverage, retail and beauty sectors, and is seeing growing interest from the education, medical and entertainment industries.

Some notable KPay customers include luggage brand Lojel, Bakery Cuisine as well as GoFit, which operates several gym and fitness centres.

KPay’s senior product manager Marcus Lim said the firm also targets minimarts and food and beverage stores in Singapore’s neighbourhoods, where some used to collect cash payments only.

“Instead of doing a manual reconciliation with a calculator and writing down on a piece of paper, what we can do is reduce the time to do that reconciliation for that merchant significantly where they are able to see their transaction report for the day and match it against the amount of outputs,” said Mr Lim.

Mr Chan said the firm expects the Singapore market to contribute about 15 per cent to its revenue in two years’ time, adding that KPay is on its way to hitting that target.

Payment firms serving Singapore SMEs moving to cashless include digital payment platforms such as Fomo Pay, HitPay, Stripe and Adyen.

When asked why it chose to expand in a crowded market, Mr Chan said the firm still sees a lot of opportunities here.

KPay chief executive Davis Chan said the firm expects the Singapore market to contribute about 15 per cent to its revenue in two years’ time.

PHOTO: KPAY GROUP

“We expanded in Singapore because we want to hire more good talent. There is a talent hub in Singapore,” he said.

“Singapore is also kind of a role model and also helps to showcase to everyone in the South-east Asian market. So that’s why we needed success in the Singapore market,” said Mr Chan.

However, the firm has to contend with competition for talent from other companies, he said. This led KPay to launch an employee stock option programme to attract talent.

Its 2026 road map includes growing its offerings to encompass a range of terminals, self-service kiosks and tap-to-pay for offline businesses, as well as payment links and checkout pages for online payments.

An upcoming KPay business account for SMEs will provide a global remittance service and automated expense control.

Mr Chan said 40 per cent of its Hong Kong merchants have adopted different products and services in KPay’s ecosystem.

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