With smartphones nearly ubiquitous at 88 percent penetration, and its internet users are also among the top 10 most engaged globally, Malaysia is home to one of the most connected populations in the world.

Freemont, CA: San Francisco based Stripe recently opened its new branch in Malaysia, in partnership with Payments Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd (PayNet) to make FPX available to businesses in the country. The global technology company which builds economic infrastructure for the internet was recently valued at USD 35 billion, a 56 percent increase from its valuation last year.

With smartphones nearly ubiquitous at 88 percent penetration, and its internet users are also among the top 10 most engaged globally, Malaysia is home to one of the most connected populations in the world. Despite these statistics, internet represents only 3 percent of the country's GDP. The FinTech company recently had raised USD 250 million in extended funding round, which it intended to use towards the expansion of the business.

“Even today, less than eight percent of commerce is online, largely because moving money on the internet remains complicated, cumbersome and slow,” said John Collison, co-founder, and president, Stripe. "At Stripe, our goal is to remove these barriers and build the kind of infrastructure ambitious businesses need to run at internet speed and scale."

With this launch in Malaysia, any online company in the country can now gain access to Stripe's entire product stack to launch, run, and scale their business globally from day one. The company has also made available its range of services, including Stripe Connect for running multi-sided marketplaces, Billing for subscriptions and recurring payments, Radar for fraud detection and prevention, Sigma for analytics, and more.

“We are extremely excited by the energy and determination of the Malaysian entrepreneurs we’ve been working with daily. Technology should not be holding them back,” said Piruze Sabuncu, head of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, Stripe. “Stripe aims to empower more businesses in Malaysia to export their creativity to the rest of the world.” The company is also in the process of making FPX available in beta, allowing businesses on Stripe to accept payments via online bank transfers, along with major credit cards like Visa and Mastercard.

Since January this year, Stripe has been testing its service in Malaysia and already works with some of the country's most innovative companies, including e-commerce solutions platform EasyStore, food delivery service Dahmakan, and fashion and retail platform FashionValet.