Thunes chases the American dream

We look at the payments firm's US ambitions after posting revenue growth and narrowing losses, and AI's potential to thaw India's funding winter.

Read from your browser Daily Newsletter Welcome to Tech in Asia's daily newsletter, your essential dose of Asia's tech and startup buzz. Subscribe to this newsletter or send story tips to editors@techinasia.com. Ensure our articles appear in your Google searches: IN FOCUS Thunes tunes into revenue growth Can AI warm up India's funding winter? OpenAI rides on India's AI high Hello Betamax, Building a global payments superhighway is one thing, but as any logistics expert will tell you, the road is only as useful as the cargo it can carry. In payments, that cargo is increasingly digital. I've covered several payment players in the past year, and stablecoins have popped up in conversations almost every time. They do so again in this edition's featured story on Thunes, a payments firm based in Singapore. The company's CEO, Peter De Caluwe, noted in an opinion piece last month that there's a need for a "financial translator" that enables instant transfers between fiat and stablecoins, "without the user ever needing to manage private keys or gas fees." Thunes fills this gap through its Pay-to-Stablecoin-Wallets solution, which it launched late last year. It has also partnered with firms like Mastercard and Yellowcard to expand its stablecoin capabilities. In his piece, De Caluwe noted that he considers stablecoin wallets as "the new rail" that handles transactions faster and cheaper than traditional systems. And with Thunes' fellow payments firms Tazapay and FomoPay also pushing for stablecoin prowess, I'm inclined to believe him. Thunes' stablecoin push comes after it logged a 33% increase in revenue in 2024, according to its latest financial statement. We unpack more of the company's numbers in our full story. Miguel Cordon, journalist TOP STORY Thunes revenue rises 33% in 2024 as it expands to US, stablecoins Geographical expansion is also on the cards for the company, which has secured 50 operating licenses in the US and is therefore allowed to facilitate cross-border transactions across the country. Thunes has even fast-tracked this expansion with its acquisition of Tilia, a cross-border payments company in the US. While Thunes' cash and cash equivalents decreased in 2024, it raised US$150 million in new capital last year. The company said it would use the money to help bankroll its US push. A VISUAL STORY YOU SHOULDN'T MISS An AI-driven revival Last year, India saw its slowest year of funding since 2016: Startups in the country raised only US$10.9 billion in total. This year isn't off to a great start either. Cumulatively, startups have raised only US$1.3 billion. If this rate continues, the country will post a decade low in capital raised. But there are some bright spots for 2026 - none brighter than AI. The country's AI summit, for example, highlighted India's ambitions to become a global hub for the tech. The country is looking to attract as much as US$200 billion in investments for data centers alone over the next few years. Companies are placing big bets in India as well, with Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently announcing plans for a US$15 billion investment in the country's AI ecosystem. These plans involve projects like an international subsea cable gateway and a gigawatt-scale compute facility. TRENDING NEWS 1️⃣ OpenAI becomes first customer of Tata's India data centers The AI heavyweight secured 100 megawatts of capacity under the massive US$500 billion Stargate initiative. Tata Consultancy Services is investing US$7 billion to develop a 1-gigawatt data center unit in the country. 2️⃣ China's Moonshot AI reportedly seeks $12b valuation in new funding The open model developer is looking to raise at least US$700 million in a new round. Existing backers like Alibaba, Tencent, Andon, and 5Y Capital lead the said round, which is yet to close. 3️⃣ Microsoft says Office bug shared confidential emails with Copilot AI The issue, which has been messing with Microsoft 365 users since January, bypassed data loss prevention policies and improperly processed sensitive information within Copilot Chat. The company has not disclosed the total number of affected customers. 4️⃣ Uber to invest over $100m in US robotaxi charging stations The hubs will bolster the company's efforts ahead of its robotaxi service launch, which will see it compete with the likes of Waymo. Included in the investment are site development, equipment, and grid connection costs. 5️⃣ Figma shares rise 15% after Q4 report The design software firm's stock surged after posting its quarterly results, with revenue increasing 40% year on year. It's currently growing its AI features, including a new tool that uses AI models to assist design. INSIDE AIRWALLEX'S AML PROBE: A PEER REVIEW From regulatory scrutiny to AI laws, this week's 60/40 offers a candid operator-level breakdown This week's 60/40 explores a few unavoidable truths about building a successful fintech business: Every financial institution faces fraud risk, and every fast-growing startup drops something while chasing scale. The real question isn't whether you're 100% compliant with AML/CFT regulations; it's whether you're trying hard enough. When regulators call, what do you do next? In Airwallex's case, the issue isn't just the AUSTRAC probe but also whether the response matches the scrutiny. Our expert panel of fintech founders and investors - Walter de Oude (Chocolate Finance), Prashanth Ranganathan (Zinc and PayU), and Aleksey Mironenko (Leo Wealth) - provides a candid, peer-level breakdown of the regulatory concerns in the Airwallex probe and shareswhat they would do differently. We then zoom out to Asia's broader governance shift: from South Korea's new AI Basic Act to the rise of a "humans-optional" economy reshaping entry-level hiring. If you build, invest, or hire in Asia's tech ecosystem, this is operator-level insight you won't get from the headlines. Listen here: Spotify | YouTube | Apple Podcasts. PRESS PEEKS The following press releases were published as they were received, without any editing from the Tech in Asia team. You, too, can publish your own press release on our site by simply filling out this form. Our team will get back to you by the next business day. 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