Startups in Asia can soon get free payment processing from PayPal and Braintree

Every cent counts for startups. Which makes the PayPal Startup Blueprint welcome news for entrepreneurs. The payment giant announced this week that it will extend the program, which gives startups free payment processing, to eight markets in Asia-Pacific:

• Singapore
• Australia
• Hong Kong
• Indonesia
• Japan
• Malaysia
• Philippines
• Taiwan

The program waives processing fees for transactions up to the US$1.5 million mark for PayPal and US$100,000 for Braintree. The latter is only available in Australia for now, but will be available for the rest of Asia soon, according to the press release.

Startups in the program will also get one-on-one mentorship, workshops, and “white glove” support from a team of advisors who are either entrepreneurs themselves or were involved in early-stage companies.

Startup Blueprint isn’t open to everyone though. To join, your startup must:

• make mobile or web services/software as your core,
• be privately held, and make under US$3 million a year or are less than five years old,
• get nominated by a Startup Blueprint partner. Some of them are: East Ventures (Japan, Indonesia and Singapore), Golden Gate Ventures (Singapore), JFDI (Singapore), 1337 Accelerator (Malaysia), and Startmate (Australia).

See more: Payments 2.0 firm Braintree hiring sales team in Singapore

East Ventures is an investor in Tech in Asia. Read our ethics statement.