PayPal opens 2 labs in India to ride wave of fintech and AI

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PayPal has opened two innovation labs at its Chennai and Bangalore centers. It’s a step up for its Indian centers, on the lines of similar advanced facilities it has in the US and Singapore.

The company says the India labs will focus on deep tech: machine learning, artificial intelligence, internet of things (IoT), wireless communication, augmented reality/virtual reality, computer vision, and robotics. They will provide cutting-edge hardware for developers to use.

“India is a hotbed for innovation, given its evolving startup ecosystem, diverse merchant profiles, and enormous talent pool,” says Mike Todasco, director of innovation at PayPal.

See: AI and IoT define the new India – not outsourcing or ecommerce

A number of multinational companies have set up developments centers in India, as well as corporate accelerators such as those of Microsoft, Target, and Accenture from the US, and Swiss Re, Bosch, and Airbus from Europe. They have increasingly focused on AI and other deep tech innovations from India of late.

Both Microsoft and Target had almost their entire cohorts made up of AI startups in recent batches.

See: 8 deep tech startups from India to watch

The rise of fintech in India, boosted by government initiatives such as the unified payments interface, makes it an opportune time for PayPal to locate its innovation labs in this fast-growing mobile market. PayPal also runs an incubator for fintech startups in Chennai.

India is also an important market for PayPal because of its large pool of freelance tech workers as well as tech companies with global clients.