While much of the payments world remains focused on established markets, the real momentum is building elsewhere. In countries across South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, fast-growing populations, high mobile usage and local innovation are changing how people pay and what they expect from the companies they buy from.

For global merchants, these markets offer huge potential but also come with practical challenges. sees this not as a problem, but as a chance to do things better.

Launched in 2019, the UK-based paytech has carved out a niche helping businesses tap into emerging markets through a single, streamlined payments platform. The company has grown quickly, and without external funding, by focusing on what many others overlook: the local details that make or break a cross-border payment strategy.

PayFuture is now entering a new phase. The recent appointment of industry veteran as deputy CEO, the hire of experienced fintech legal leader as group chief legal officer, and the company’s new EMI licence in Malta all point to a business stepping things up: building on early success and getting ready for bigger, more international growth.

recently caught up with Morar, as well as CEO and co-founder to learn more about how PayFuture plans to turn momentum into scale, and what it takes to grow in markets others often avoid.

Morar’s decision to join PayFuture came after a long career in corporate and institutional banking, global payments and e-commerce. Over the past 25 years, he’s held senior roles at and helping to build and scale operations across Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. But what drew him to PayFuture was something different.

“I was really looking for something to get me excited again,” he says. “Something where I could help build a business from where it is now to something much, much larger.”

Morar had known Haer for years, and saw in PayFuture a combination of ambition, focus and resilience.

“What really attracted me was that I know Mani, I know what his expectations are and what he wants to go and do,” he explains. “And when I looked at what I’ve done, taking businesses from an early stage to becoming global processors, I saw that same potential here.”

Unlike many fintechs focused on Europe or North America, PayFuture has built its business in markets that others often overlook. For Morar, that was a key part of the attraction.

“I think the biggest, exciting part about PayFuture for me is it’s not the traditional markets – the US, Europe, UK – which everybody plays in,” he says. “What they do is very unique. It kind of hits my sweet spot with markets like Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia… and having lived and worked out in Asia and other areas around there, I know how to build those areas. That’s what’s really attractive.”

For Haer, the focus on emerging markets has always been deliberate and central to PayFuture’s identity.

“Eighty-five percent of the world’s population is in emerging markets,” he says. “And if you look at the world economy, the fastest-growing economies are based in those markets. Digital adoption, use of mobile phones, for example, is increasing tremendously.”

That growth presents a major opportunity, not just for PayFuture, but for the merchants it supports. The company’s model is built around helping online businesses access customers in these regions, using local payment methods and infrastructure that suit the way people actually pay.

“If we can help online businesses enter emerging markets, accept payments from local consumers and give them an easy way of settling their funds outside the country, then what we’ve done is help the merchants become successful,” says Haer. “That, for us, is hugely exciting.”

But the appeal isn’t just about size and scale. It’s about unmet need and the value of being able to unlock access in regions where others often struggle.

“Whatever we do at PayFuture, it has to help the merchant,” Haer adds. “Online businesses, in order for them to grow, they have to go to emerging markets. And what PayFuture is trying to do is bridge that gap.”

While the opportunity in emerging markets is clear, accessing it isn’t straightforward. PayFuture’s team is quick to point out that these aren’t plug-and-play environments. Payments behave differently, regulations change often, and consumer preferences vary widely not just between regions, but within them.

“There’s a whole bunch of stuff,” says Morar. “Language, local presence, understanding the nuances of each of those markets. A very high percentage is still cash-driven, and it’s going from cash to digital: understanding those flows is really important.”

It’s not only about offering the right payment methods; it’s about having the cultural, regulatory and technical understanding to match what’s required locally with what merchants need globally.

“It’s not just the technology, it’s not just language or currency,” Morar explains. “It is the whole ethos of doing business. That’s where a lot of companies get stuck, they try to export one model everywhere. We don’t.”

Haer agrees. He describes PayFuture’s role as not just enabling payments but removing friction and absorbing complexity, so merchants don’t have to deal with it directly.

“These countries are very complex,” he says. “But the whole point of PayFuture is to make that complexity easy for the merchants. That’s why they want to use us. We handle all the regulation, licensing, the local changes, so they can just focus on growing their business.”

PayFuture’s growth strategy is focused on markets where change is happening fast and where local knowledge really matters. That includes parts of Asia, Africa and the Middle East, where payment systems, regulation and consumer habits can differ widely and shift quickly.

Vietnam is one market that Morar knows first-hand.

“Vietnam has around 200 million people, and around 80 per cent are below the age of 40,” he says. “So, they have a very high net worth of individuals that use mobile phones for payment capabilities, but a lot of them don’t have the English capacity, they’re more in the trade areas.”

He says that while the market is growing quickly, it’s not enough to look at just one part of it.

“They export a lot of goods, but the currency is very different, it’s something like 26,000 dong to one pound. You’ve got to connect all those pieces. It’s about understanding how the whole environment works.”

India is also a key focus for PayFuture, particularly as the government continues to push digital inclusion.

“The keeps bringing out new products; every quarter there’s something new,” says Haer. “Their aim is to include everyone in the country. Right now, it’s hundreds of millions, but there’s 1.4 billion people in India, so it’s only going to grow.”

Other high-potential markets include Bangladesh, where is widely used; Egypt, where digital adoption is gaining ground; and Saudi Arabia, where state-led investment is helping to reshape the payments sector.

“Each country has its own payment options and its own preferences,” says Haer. “In Saudi, there’s a lot of investment going in, and with the World Cup coming in nine years, there’s a lot of attention on the region. The GCC is going to be very active, and South Asia and MENA are definitely where we’re focused.”

Building for what’s next

After several years of steady growth, PayFuture is now looking at how to take things to the next level. That includes growing into new markets, adding more licences, and making sure the tech and team are ready to support it all.

“We have a very strict three-plus-two strategy,” says Morar. “Over five years, we want to grow the business tenfold. That means being in the big population countries – Africa, GCC, Latin America, Asia – and putting the right people and processes in place.”

Getting the right licences is a big part of that. The company’s new EMI licence in Malta is the first of several steps designed to give it more flexibility, particularly in Europe.

“We’re not ignoring the region we’re already in,” Morar adds. “The UK and Europe are still important, and being licensed properly gives us more options.”

Technology is another priority. As more merchants come on board and transaction volumes grow, the pressure on PayFuture’s systems, and those of its partners, is increasing.

“The demand is there, and we’ve got to stay ahead of it,” says Morar. “That means making sure everything we’ve built can scale, and that our local partners can handle it too.”

Keeping up with changing rules in each market is also part of the day-to-day.

“Regulation in emerging markets changes all the time,” adds Haer. “But that’s part of what we do, we stay on top of it, so our merchants don’t have to.”

“The more we do, the more we have to do, in the regulation side,” Morar adds.

The end goal, they say, remains simple: give online businesses the tools to grow in places that are often overlooked.

“If we can take away the hard parts, they can focus on what they’re good at – building their brand, finding customers, growing their business. That’s the role we want to play,” said Haer.