MasterCard Opens India Tech Hub, Largest outside U.S. (Feb. 4, 2015)
MasterCard continued its expansion in India today, with the official opening of the payment network’s new Technology Hub in the city of Pune. The facility will be a “key part” of MasterCard’s push to develop payment technologies that enable the company’s vision of a “cashless world.”
With a massive underbanked population and a national government committed to moving the country’s economy away from cash, MasterCard views India as a hothouse for the cultivation of new payments innovation. The Pune facility joins an existing MasterCard Tech Hub in the city of Vadodara, making India the site of the network’s largest Tech Hub presence outside the U.S. The new facility enables India-based engineers and developers to collaborate with MasterCard’s innovation teams. (The country is home to approximately 10 percent of MasterCard’s global workforce.) Teams will work to develop innovations around online transactions, along with mobile and contactless payment services, MasterCard said.
MasterCard has a lengthy history of working with local partners in India. Last month, the network joined with the Indian state of Gujarat—home to its Vadodara Hub—to accelerate adoption of electronic payments. The network also has electronic payments projects with the State Bank of India, the state governments of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, along with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation and the National Skill Development Corporation. And last year, MasterCard acquired Pune-based prepaid processor ElectraCard Services, to beef up its processing capability in India.
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