Global fintech firm Ripple hires ex-Uber exec for Southeast Asia push

Global payments company Ripple has appointed Brooks Entwistle, a former executive at US ride-hailing firm Uber, as managing director of its Southeast Asian operations.

Ripple’s new managing director Brooks Entwistle / Photo credit: Yale-NUS Student Investment Group

With 30 years of senior management experience in both financial services and technology, Entwistle will help Ripple drive digital asset and blockchain adoption in Southeast Asia as the fintech firm is deepening and expanding its presence across the region.

Prior to Ripple, he served as the chief business officer (international) at Uber, where he led the ride-hailer’s regional growth strategy by launching the service in new markets and navigating through regulatory challenges across Asia Pacific.

Entwistle also spent over two decades at Goldman Sachs; he was partner and chairman of the bank’s Southeast Asia business.

Founded in 2012, Ripple provides enterprise blockchain solutions for international payments. By joining its network, financial institutions can process their customers’ payments across the world “instantly, reliably, and cost-effectively,” while banks and payment providers can use the digital asset XRP to reduce their costs and access new markets.

Southeast Asia has emerged as the fastest-growing region on the firm’s RippleNet financial network. The company says that transactions in the region increased by 10x year-on-year in 2020.

With offices in the US, the UK, Mumbai, Singapore, São Paulo, Reykjavik, and Dubai, Ripple said it has over 300 clients such as Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank and iRemit, a Filipino-owned non-bank remittance service provider.