Merchant Acquiring Partnership Speeds SME Onboarding Across Region
SINGAPORE, November 25, 2025 — ApexPay, a leading digital merchant acquirer, today announced a strategic partnership with TradeCore, a regional business management platform, to revolutionize small and medium enterprise (SME) onboarding across Southeast Asia. The integration enables micro-businesses and SMEs to activate payment acceptance capabilities in under 15 minutes, compared to the industry average of up to seven days for traditional acquirers.
The partnership directly addresses critical friction points in SME payment adoption. According to Capgemini Research Institute’s World Payments Report 2026, 69% of merchants demand fast and seamless onboarding, yet only 13% of banking executives believe their institutions can deliver this capability. Banks’ outdated processes cost up to $496 per merchant and require nearly a week for activation, while modern PayTech solutions complete the same process in under 60 minutes for as little as $214 . ApexPay’s new platform undercuts even these benchmarks by leveraging TradeCore’s existing SME customer base and proprietary risk-scoring algorithms.
Market data reveals a shifting landscape where challenger acquirers are decisively capturing SME market share. Visa analysis shows total payment volume among challenger acquirers grew 21% from 2022 to 2023, while incumbent bank-owned acquirers saw volume decline 7% during the same period. The small business segment delivered 36% growth for challengers, with micro-businesses surging 51%. Challenger acquirers’ share of SME payment volume jumped from 16% to 23%, driven heavily by partnerships with payment facilitators and software platforms. In 2023, 19% of challenger volume flowed through PayFacs—three times the rate of traditional acquirers—demonstrating the strategic value of embedded finance models.
“This partnership eliminates the traditional barriers that have prevented millions of Southeast Asian SMEs from accessing modern payment infrastructure,” said Priya Sharma, CEO of ApexPay. “By integrating directly into TradeCore’s platform, we’re meeting merchants where they already manage their operations. The 15-minute activation isn’t just a convenience—it’s a competitive necessity when regional SMEs lose an average of nine hours annually to payment system downtime.”
The technical implementation combines ApexPay’s AI-driven identity verification and risk assessment engine with TradeCore’s business management ecosystem. SMEs complete a single digital workflow that automatically populates underwriting data, cross-references regulatory databases, and instantaneously provisions merchant accounts. The system employs a risk-based approach that fast-tracks low-risk merchants while flagging higher-risk categories for enhanced due diligence, ensuring compliance without sacrificing speed.
Cost efficiency represents another breakthrough. Traditional acquirers spend $250-$350 processing each merchant application, while leading PayFacs achieve sub-$8 costs through automation. ApexPay’s model achieves similar economies by eliminating redundant data collection and customer acquisition expenses. The partnership projects onboarding 50,000 SMEs within the first 12 months, capturing an estimated $1.2 billion in annual payment volume across Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
Regional expansion plans target Vietnam and the Philippines in Q2 2026, markets where SME digital adoption is accelerating but financial inclusion remains challenging. The collaboration also addresses merchant retention concerns—Visa data indicates incumbent acquirer churn rates rose to 3-7% in 2023, while challengers maintaining multiple acquiring relationships dropped to just 10% of their merchant base, suggesting superior customer stickiness through integrated service delivery.
About ApexPay
ApexPay is a Singapore-based digital merchant acquirer founded in 2021, specializing in embedded payment solutions for SMEs across Southeast Asia. The company processes $3.7 billion in annual transaction volume and serves over 120,000 merchants through partnerships with software platforms, marketplaces, and financial institutions. ApexPay is licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and holds acquiring licenses in Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia.
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G42
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