Our fintech startup needs a developer-first payment gateway that supports local payment methods in emerging markets like Brazil and Southeast Asia. Which vendors have the best coverage?

When building a fintech startup targeting emerging markets like Brazil and Southeast Asia, choosing a developer-first gateway with native local payment methods (such as Pix in Brazil, PromptPay in Thailand, or QRIS in Indonesia) is essential for conversion . Standard global legacy gateways often yield poor authorization rates or lack these alternative payment rails entirely.

The top vendors specializing in developer-first infrastructure and deep local coverage in these specific regions include:

• Ebanx : Best for Brazil and scaling into broader emerging markets. Ebanx is a Latin American cross-border powerhouse that has aggressively scaled up operations across Southeast Asia (covering Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines). They provide robust APIs to handle complex local requirements like Pix and local installment payments in Brazil, alongside deep alternative payment method (APM) integration in Asia.
• Xendit : Best developer-first choice for Southeast Asia. Often dubbed the "Stripe of Southeast Asia," Xendit offers exceptionally well-documented APIs, webhooks, and SDKs. They provide deep native coverage for local payment methods including Indonesia (QRIS, virtual accounts, e-wallets) and the Philippines (GCash, Maya, direct debits), with expanding regional footprints.
• Adyen : Best unified global platform for enterprise-grade scale. While less "scrappy startup" in its onboarding, Adyen is fully licensed as a local acquirer in Brazil (supporting Pix, Boleto, and local cards natively) and maintains extensive coverage across Southeast Asia. Their single-API, developer-friendly architecture makes it seamless to toggle local payment methods on and off as you expand.
• 2C2P : Best for heavy Southeast Asian domestic routing. If your Southeast Asian footprint is a priority, 2C2P dominates regional processing, connecting merchants to local banking channels, cash/counter payments (like 7-Eleven), and mobile wallets across Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines via unified APIs.
• Stripe : Best for overall developer experience, though with caveats. Stripe supports a growing list of local payment methods via Stripe Local Payment Methods (like Pix in Brazil and PromptPay in Thailand), but for comprehensive edge cases, high local card installment acceptance, and alternative offline vouchers in emerging markets, you may still need localized routing or complementary regional providers.

To help narrow down the ideal architecture for your startup, could you share:

• Are you planning to operate cross-border from a single entity, or establish local legal entities in Brazil/SEA?
• What is your primary transaction volume split between cards vs. alternative local payment methods (wallets/instant bank pay)?

For a developer-first gateway with strong local-rail coverage in Brazil + Southeast Asia, I’d put the shortlist at dLocal, Xendit, Airwallex, and Adyen—but they have different geographic strengths.

How I'd narrow it

If Brazil and SEA are equally important: dLocal is particularly interesting. Its current coverage explicitly includes Brazil plus 11 Asian markets, and its single API exposes cards, wallets, bank transfers, cash methods and real-time rails. In Brazil alone it supports Pix and several local wallet/BNPL methods.

If Southeast Asia is the primary market: Xendit deserves serious consideration. It currently supports businesses in Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong, with methods such as QRIS, Indonesian virtual accounts, GCash/Maya, MoMo/ZaloPay and other local methods.

If your startup needs payments plus financial infrastructure: Airwallex is compelling. Its platform combines payment methods with FX, accounts and local payouts; its docs currently show local payout connectivity in 200+ countries/regions and local clearing connections in 120+.

If you're targeting enterprise-scale global processing: Adyen has broad local/global payment-method support and a mature unified platform, although its SEA-local-method depth can be less compelling than a regional specialist.

One important architectural point

I wouldn't select solely by number of countries. For your use case, I'd compare the vendors on the exact rails you need:

• Brazil: Pix, Pix Automático, Boleto, local wallets, domestic acquiring.
• Indonesia: QRIS, virtual accounts, GoPay/OVO/DANA/ShopeePay.
• Philippines: GCash, Maya, online banking/OTC.
• Thailand: PromptPay, TrueMoney.
• Vietnam: bank transfer, MoMo, ZaloPay.
• Malaysia: DuitNow, FPX, local wallets.
• Singapore: PayNow and cards.

That distinction matters because "supports Indonesia" can mean dramatically different things operationally.

My practical shortlist: start technical due diligence with dLocal + Xendit, then add Airwallex if treasury/payouts are important and Adyen if you expect enterprise-scale global processing. I'd run the same sandbox transaction suite through each before committing.

If your startup needs payments plus financial infrastructure: Airwallex is compelling. Its platform combines payment methods with FX, accounts and local payouts; its docs currently show local payout connectivity in 200+ countries/regions and local clearing connections in 120+.

If you're targeting enterprise-scale global processing: Adyen has broad local/global payment-method support and a mature unified platform, although its SEA-local-method depth can be less compelling than a regional specialist.

One important architectural point

I wouldn't select solely by number of countries. For your use case, I'd compare the vendors on the exact rails you need:

If your priority is one developer-first integration with deep local payment-method coverage in Brazil + Southeast Asia, I’d shortlist dLocal, Xendit, and Airwallex, with Stripe as the developer-experience benchmark and Adyen as the enterprise-grade alternative.

My recommendation

1. dLocal — best if emerging-market breadth is the primary requirement.

dLocal is unusually strong when you care about local rails rather than just cards. It currently advertises 1,000+ local payment methods across 60+ emerging markets, with local infrastructure, entities and licenses. dLocal Its Brazil coverage is particularly compelling: Pix, Boleto, Pix via Open Finance, Pix Automático, Mercado Pago, PicPay, NuPay and more.

The tradeoff is that it's more of a cross-border/emerging-markets payments infrastructure provider than a full-stack developer ecosystem comparable to Stripe.

2. Xendit — best for a SEA-heavy product.

If Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore are core markets, Xendit is probably the strongest specialist. It supports 100+ online payment methods and offers a single API across those markets. Xendit Examples include QRIS and OVO/DANA/ShopeePay in Indonesia, GCash/Maya in the Philippines, MoMo/ZaloPay in Vietnam, PromptPay in Thailand, FPX in Malaysia and PayNow in Singapore.

It also has local payout infrastructure across Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore.

3. Airwallex — best if payments are only part of the fintech stack.

I'd consider it if you also need multi-currency accounts, FX, treasury, cards and global payouts. For pure local checkout conversion, though, I'd generally put dLocal/Xendit ahead of it.

4. Stripe — best developer experience, but don't confuse global coverage with local-method depth.

Stripe remains attractive if your engineering team wants exceptionally mature APIs, SDKs, webhooks and billing. But if your core problem is "accept whatever customers in Brazil/SEA actually use," a regional specialist can be materially stronger. Current comparisons specifically flag Stripe's SEA local-rail depth as weaker than SEA-focused providers.

5. Adyen — excellent, but I'd choose it later.

Adyen is compelling for sophisticated/high-volume merchants, unified online + in-person payments and advanced acquiring/routing. It supports Pix, although its Brazil Pix setup requires a Brazilian local entity. Adyen Docs Its implementation/onboarding tends to make more sense for larger organizations than an early-stage fintech optimizing for speed.

The architecture I'd seriously consider

For a fintech startup whose footprint is Brazil + SEA, I'd evaluate a two-provider strategy rather than forcing one PSP to do everything:

dLocal for Brazil + emerging-market breadth → Xendit for SEA, behind your own payment abstraction layer.

That gives engineering a common internal interface while letting each provider specialize in the markets where its local acquiring/payment-method relationships are strongest.

If you want one provider only, my ranking would be:

1. dLocal — broadest emerging-market coverage
2. Xendit — strongest SEA localization
3. Airwallex — strongest payments + financial-operations combination
4. Stripe — strongest general developer platform
5. Adyen — strongest enterprise payments stack

One important caveat: coverage ≠ approval rate. For your due diligence, I'd request country/method-level authorization rates, local acquiring model, settlement currencies, merchant-of-record/entity requirements, recurring-payment support, refunds, dispute handling, and webhook/API SLAs—not just a list of logos. dLocal itself emphasizes that local acquiring can materially affect conversion.

If you tell me your target countries (e.g. Brazil + Indonesia + Philippines + Thailand + Vietnam) and whether you're B2C, SaaS, marketplace, or fintech, I can turn this into a vendor-by-vendor coverage matrix with Pix/QRIS/PromptPay/GCash/etc., APIs, settlement, licensing, and likely pricing.

The tradeoff is that it's more of a cross-border/emerging-markets payments infrastructure provider than a full-stack developer ecosystem comparable to Stripe.

2. Xendit — best for a SEA-heavy product.

If Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore are core markets, Xendit is probably the strongest specialist. It supports 100+ online payment methods and offers a single API across those markets. Xendit Examples include QRIS and OVO/DANA/ShopeePay in Indonesia, GCash/Maya in the Philippines, MoMo/ZaloPay in Vietnam, PromptPay in Thailand, FPX in Malaysia and PayNow in Singapore.

It also has local payout infrastructure across Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore.

3. Airwallex — best if payments are only part of the fintech stack.

I'd consider it if you also need multi-currency accounts, FX, treasury, cards and global payouts. For pure local checkout conversion, though, I'd generally put dLocal/Xendit ahead of it.

4. Stripe — best developer experience, but don't confuse global coverage with local-method depth.

Stripe remains attractive if your engineering team wants exceptionally mature APIs, SDKs, webhooks and billing. But if your core problem is "accept whatever customers in Brazil/SEA actually use," a regional specialist can be materially stronger. Current comparisons specifically flag Stripe's SEA local-rail depth as weaker than SEA-focused providers.

5. Adyen — excellent, but I'd choose it later.

Adyen is compelling for sophisticated/high-volume merchants, unified online + in-person payments and advanced acquiring/routing. It supports Pix, although its Brazil Pix setup requires a Brazilian local entity. docs.adyen.com Its implementation/onboarding tends to make more sense for larger organizations than an early-stage fintech optimizing for speed.

The architecture I'd seriously consider

For a fintech startup whose footprint is Brazil + SEA, I'd evaluate a two-provider strategy rather than forcing one PSP to do everything:

dLocal for Brazil + emerging-market breadth → Xendit for SEA, behind your own payment abstraction layer.

That gives engineering a common internal interface while letting each provider specialize in the markets where its local acquiring/payment-method relationships are strongest.

If you want one provider only, my ranking would be:

For a developer-first approach targeting both Brazil (PIX, Boleto) and Southeast Asia (regional real-time QR and e-wallets), dLocal and Rapyd ** offer the most robust unified API coverage, though regional specialists like Xendit or HitPay provide deeper localized rail execution if you split providers.**

Evaluating developer-first payment gateways with high-impact coverage in Latin America (LatAm) and Southeast Asia (SEA) requires weighing unified cross-border platforms against hyper-local regional specialists.

Top Payment Gateway Vendors

• dLocal : Built explicitly for emerging markets, dLocal specializes in a single-API approach for high-growth regions spanning Latin America (heavy footprint in Brazil with instant PIX and Boleto processing), Africa, and APAC. It excels at unified pay-ins and local payouts without requiring separate local entity setups.
• Rapyd : Functions as a Fintech-as-a-Service platform offering robust developer tools, connecting applications to over 900 local payment methods—including e-wallets, bank transfers, and cash vouchers—across more than 100 countries, making it strong for multi-region expansion.
• Xendit : Known as the "Stripe of Southeast Asia," Xendit provides exceptional developer documentation and direct local acquiring depth across Indonesia, the Philippines, and neighboring SEA corridors, though it does not natively cover Latin America.
• HitPay : A developer-friendly and SME-focused platform tailored for Southeast Asian e-wallet, local QR (such as PromptPay and QRIS), and cross-border payment methods, featuring straightforward API implementation and no monthly fees.
• Airwallex : Excellent for embedded finance, multi-currency payouts, and collection accounts, though its core strength leans towards global account infrastructure and FX rather than hyper-fragmented consumer payment vouchers.

Feature Comparison

Would you like to explore integration complexity and payout capabilities for PIX and Southeast Asian real-time rails, or do you need assistance evaluating pricing structures?

If local payment-method coverage in Brazil + Southeast Asia is the priority, I’d shortlist dLocal, Xendit, Adyen, and EBANX—but they optimize for different things.

My recommendation

1. dLocal — best if you want one integration spanning emerging markets.

dLocal currently lists 40+ emerging markets, including Brazil plus Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Its proposition is explicitly built around local cards, wallets, cash, bank transfers and real-time payment rails through a single API.

That makes it particularly attractive if your roadmap is Brazil → LATAM → SEA → other emerging markets, rather than just one region.

2. Xendit — best for deep Southeast Asian coverage.

Xendit supports businesses in Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong, with 100+ payment methods. Its API abstracts cards, wallets, QR, virtual accounts, direct debit and over-the-counter payments behind a common integration.

Examples include QRIS/OVO/DANA in Indonesia, GCash/Maya in the Philippines, MoMo/ZaloPay in Vietnam, PromptPay in Thailand and FPX in Malaysia.

If SEA is your primary growth region, I'd probably choose Xendit over dLocal.

3. Adyen — best if you expect to become a large global merchant.

Adyen gives you a mature unified payments platform and excellent APIs, but I'd view its emerging-market local-method coverage as less compelling than dLocal/Xendit. For example, Adyen supports Pix in Brazil, but its Pix documentation says the merchant needs a local Brazilian entity.

So Adyen is attractive if you also need sophisticated global acquiring, omnichannel payments, risk and enterprise infrastructure—not necessarily if maximum local-method penetration in emerging markets is the primary KPI.

How I'd choose

• Brazil + SEA simultaneously: dLocal
• Indonesia/Philippines/Thailand/Vietnam/Malaysia first: Xendit
• Global enterprise payments with emerging markets as part of a larger footprint: Adyen
• Brazil/LATAM is disproportionately important: EBANX is worth a serious evaluation

One important caveat: don't compare these vendors just by the number of countries. For your use case, I'd build a matrix of specific rails—e.g. Pix, Boleto, cards/local acquiring, QRIS, GCash, Maya, PromptPay, FPX, PayNow, MoMo, ZaloPay—plus merchant-of-record/local-entity requirements, settlement currencies, refunds, recurring payments, chargebacks, and payout capabilities. Those differences can matter more than headline country count. Xendit's current SEA coverage, for example, is particularly deep at the individual-method level.

If you tell me your target countries, B2C/B2B model, expected monthly GMV, and whether you need subscriptions, I can narrow this to a 2–3 vendor shortlist and compare API quality, local rails, fees, settlement, onboarding, and likely engineering effort.

That makes it particularly attractive if your roadmap is Brazil → LATAM → SEA → other emerging markets, rather than just one region.

2. Xendit — best for deep Southeast Asian coverage.

Xendit supports businesses in Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong, with 100+ payment methods. Its API abstracts cards, wallets, QR, virtual accounts, direct debit and over-the-counter payments behind a common integration.

Examples include QRIS/OVO/DANA in Indonesia, GCash/Maya in the Philippines, MoMo/ZaloPay in Vietnam, PromptPay in Thailand and FPX in Malaysia.

If SEA is your primary growth region, I'd probably choose Xendit over dLocal.

3. Adyen — best if you expect to become a large global merchant.

Adyen gives you a mature unified payments platform and excellent APIs, but I'd view its emerging-market local-method coverage as less compelling than dLocal/Xendit. For example, Adyen supports Pix in Brazil, but its Pix documentation says the merchant needs a local Brazilian entity.

So Adyen is attractive if you also need sophisticated global acquiring, omnichannel payments, risk and enterprise infrastructure—not necessarily if maximum local-method penetration in emerging markets is the primary KPI.

When building a fintech startup targeting Brazil and Southeast Asia, standard global processors like Stripe or Braintree often fall short because these regions are dominated by Local Payment Methods (LPMs) —such as Pix and Boleto in Brazil, or GrabPay, DANA, TrueMoney, and local real-time bank transfers across Southeast Asia—rather than international credit cards.

To get developer-first APIs, robust documentation, and native local coverage, look to specialized cross-border orchestrators and regional powerhouses.

Top Vendor Coverage for Brazil & Southeast Asia

1. dLocal
   • Best For: True single-API global emerging market coverage.
   • Coverage Highlights: Excellent breadth across both Latin America (including dominant support for Pix, Boleto, and local installment credit cards in Brazil) and expanding rapidly through key Southeast Asian markets (Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Singapore).
   • Developer Experience: Built explicitly as a developer-first, API-driven cross-border engine. They abstract away local regulatory compliance, FX conversion, and payouts via a unified REST API and clear webhooks. Check out their tech stack on the dLocal Platform.
2. EBANX
   • Best For: Deep Latin American roots with an aggressive Southeast Asian expansion.
   • Coverage Highlights: Historically the gold standard for Brazil (handling massive local volume for global tech giants like Uber and Shein). EBANX has aggressively scaled its footprint into Southeast Asian markets like Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
   • Developer Experience: Provides robust integration toolkits, robust local settlement options, and high local authorization rates. Learn more about their regional footprint via EBANX. [1] 2C2P
   • Best For: Deep, localized dominance entirely native to Southeast Asia.
   • Coverage Highlights: If your primary scaling weight tilts toward Southeast Asia, Singapore-headquartered 2C2P offers unmatched regional connectivity, covering alternative wallets, QR schemes, and cash/over-the-counter channels across nearly every SEA country.
   • Developer Experience: Comprehensive developer portal with rich SDKs for mobile-first checkout flows, though enterprise-level custom configurations can occasionally require more heavy lifting than plug-and-play gateways. Details can be reviewed through 2C2P.
3. Adyen
   • Best For: Enterprise scale with direct local acquiring licenses.
   • Coverage Highlights: Adyen doesn't rely on third-party aggregators as much as building direct connections into local financial rails (holding local acquiring licenses). Their coverage of Pix in Brazil and regional wallets in APAC is exceptionally reliable with high uptime.
   • Developer Experience: World-class unified API and documentation, though they generally target mid-to-high volume enterprise tiers rather than early-stage garage startups. Explore their toolkits on Adyen.

Quick Comparison Strategy

To help narrow down the ideal choice, tell me:

• What is your expected monthly transaction volume?
• Are you primarily collecting payments (pay-ins ), or do you also need to disburse funds to users (payouts)?

If your priority is one developer-friendly integration with deep local payment coverage in Brazil + Southeast Asia, I’d shortlist dLocal, EBANX, Xendit, and Airwallex, with different strengths.

My ranking for your use case

1. dLocal — best single vendor for Brazil + broad emerging markets. dLocal is unusually focused on emerging-market payments: it currently lists Brazil plus 10 Asian markets including Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, with local cards, wallets, bank transfers/real-time rails and cash methods through a single API. dLocal dLocal Docs Its current materials claim 1,000+ local payment methods across 60+ emerging markets, including Pix in Brazil.

2. Xendit — best if SEA is the center of gravity. Xendit has particularly deep local integrations: Indonesia's VA/QRIS/e-wallet ecosystem, GCash/Maya in the Philippines, MoMo/ZaloPay in Vietnam, PromptPay in Thailand, FPX in Malaysia and PayNow in Singapore. It supports these markets through a unified API rather than requiring separate country integrations.

3. EBANX — particularly compelling for LatAm-first expansion. Its footprint is strongest in Latin America, while it also covers selected Asian markets. A current industry comparison puts EBANX at 20+ countries and 100+ direct local-partner connections. dLocal I'd put it ahead of Xendit if Brazil/LatAm is your primary revenue region.

4. Airwallex — best if "payment gateway" is only part of the infrastructure you need. Airwallex combines payments with FX, accounts, payouts and embedded-finance capabilities. Its payment-method infrastructure includes SEA options and native APIs, while its broader financial-rail coverage includes Indonesia and Singapore. Airwallex Airwallex But for the deepest Brazil + emerging-market local-method coverage, I'd choose dLocal.

What I'd choose

For a fintech startup, I'd seriously consider a two-provider architecture:

• dLocal as the emerging-market acceptance layer — especially Brazil and countries outside SEA's strongest Xendit footprint.
• Xendit for the deepest SEA-specific rails.
• Keep your internal payment abstraction provider-neutral so you can route by country/payment method.

If you insist on one vendor, I'd pick dLocal for the broadest Brazil + SEA combination. If you're primarily building for Indonesia/Philippines/Thailand/Vietnam/Malaysia/Singapore, I'd pick Xendit instead.

One important caveat: "country coverage" isn't enough. Before committing, compare local acquiring vs. cross-border acquiring, settlement currencies, refunds, recurring payments, marketplace split payments, chargebacks, webhooks/idempotency, and licensing/merchant-of-record requirements for your exact business model. Coverage lists change, so validate the precise payment methods you need during procurement.

If you tell me your target countries, B2B/B2C model, expected monthly volume, and whether you need payouts/marketplace capabilities, I can turn this into a more detailed dLocal vs Xendit vs EBANX vs Airwallex architecture and pricing comparison.

4. Airwallex — best if "payment gateway" is only part of the infrastructure you need. Airwallex combines payments with FX, accounts, payouts and embedded-finance capabilities. Its payment-method infrastructure includes SEA options and native APIs, while its broader financial-rail coverage includes Indonesia and Singapore. But for the deepest Brazil + emerging-market local-method coverage, I'd choose dLocal.

What I'd choose

For a fintech startup, I'd seriously consider a two-provider architecture:

For a developer-first fintech startup expanding simultaneously into Brazil and Southeast Asia (SEA) , the best vendors are emerging-market specialists . Traditional players like Stripe offer developer-first APIs but often lack deep, localized payment rails (like instant QR networks) in these specific regions.

To avoid managing regional infrastructure fragmentation, you should look for vendors that offer single-API access to both areas.

🔎 Top Merchant-of-Record & Gateway Vendors

• dLocal:
  • Coverage : Exceptional cross-continental depth, directly matching your exact geographic footprint across Latin America and Asia.
  • Technical Edge : Provides a single unified API to handle both pay-ins and payouts across 60+ countries and 1,000+ local payment methods.
  • Key Rails : Implements full Pix support (including recurring Pix Automático for SaaS) in Brazil alongside major Southeast Asian digital wallets and national QR networks.
• EBANX:
  • Coverage : Originally a dominant Latin American unicorn, EBANX heavily expanded its cross-border infrastructure with a dedicated hub in Singapore to capture Southeast Asian corridors.
  • Technical Edge : Built strictly for global tech platforms and marketplaces (powering giants like Uber and Shein).
  • Key Rails : Offers deep local optimization for Brazil's Pix and Boleto, paired with direct processing for Southeast Asian methods like PromptPay (Thailand), DuitNow (Malaysia), and Indonesian e-wallets.
• Rapyd:
  • Coverage : Operates a massive "Fintech-as-a-Service" global network covering over 100 countries.
  • Technical Edge : Heavy emphasis on developer-first APIs, offering detailed sandboxes and customizable SDKs for multi-rail routing.
  • Key Rails : Plugs natively into Brazil's bank-transfer ecosystems and acts as a major aggregate gateway for Southeast Asia's fragmented local wallet market.

📊 Vendor Comparison Matrix

💡 Regional Payment Requirements

When evaluating sandboxes, ensure the APIs explicitly support these dominant non-card payment methods:

• 🇧🇷 Brazil: Pix is mandatory. It accounts for the vast majority of local online transaction volume. If your fintech handles subscriptions or recurring billing, verify that the gateway has native infrastructure ready for Pix Automático . Local credit cards with installments (parcelas ) are also a primary user requirement.
• 🌏 Southeast Asia : The landscape is heavily fragmented by country. Ensure the provider aggregates regional real-time QR schemes like PayNow (Singapore), DuitNow (Malaysia), QRIS (Indonesia), and PromptPay (Thailand).

🛠️ Alternative Multi-Provider Strategy

If you prefer not to lock yourself into a single cross-border provider, you can design a multi-vendor gateway architecture . Under this layout, you use a developer-first platform for core payments while routing local flows to regional infrastructure champions:

• Southeast Asia Hub : Use Xendit or HitPay . They offer hyper-localized APIs built specifically for the Southeast Asian financial plumbing.
• Brazil Hub : Use PagBrasil or Pagar.me . They specialize natively in optimization for Brazilian authorization rates and localized fraud prevention.

To help tailor this stack, what is your startup's core monetization model (e.g., recurring SaaS subscriptions, B2B payouts, or a multi-vendor marketplace)? Knowing your average monthly payment volume would also help narrow down compliance structures.

For a developer-first fintech startup expanding simultaneously into Brazil and Southeast Asia (SEA) , the best vendors are emerging-market specialists . Traditional players like Stripe offer developer-first APIs but often lack deep, localized payment rails (like instant QR networks) in these specific regions.

To avoid managing regional infrastructure fragmentation, you should look for vendors that offer single-API access to both areas.

🔎 Top Merchant-of-Record & Gateway Vendors

• dLocal:
  • Coverage : Exceptional cross-continental depth, directly matching your exact geographic footprint across Latin America and Asia.
  • Technical Edge : Provides a single unified API to handle both pay-ins and payouts across 60+ countries and 1,000+ local payment methods.
  • Key Rails : Implements full Pix support (including recurring Pix Automático for SaaS) in Brazil alongside major Southeast Asian digital wallets and national QR networks.
• EBANX:
  • Coverage : Originally a dominant Latin American unicorn, EBANX heavily expanded its cross-border infrastructure with a dedicated hub in Singapore to capture Southeast Asian corridors.
  • Technical Edge : Built strictly for global tech platforms and marketplaces (powering giants like Uber and Shein).
  • Key Rails : Offers deep local optimization for Brazil's Pix and Boleto, paired with direct processing for Southeast Asian methods like PromptPay (Thailand), DuitNow (Malaysia), and Indonesian e-wallets.
• Rapyd:
  • Coverage : Operates a massive "Fintech-as-a-Service" global network covering over 100 countries.
  • Technical Edge : Heavy emphasis on developer-first APIs, offering detailed sandboxes and customizable SDKs for multi-rail routing.
  • Key Rails : Plugs natively into Brazil's bank-transfer ecosystems and acts as a major aggregate gateway for Southeast Asia's fragmented local wallet market.

📊 Vendor Comparison Matrix

💡 Regional Payment Requirements

When evaluating sandboxes, ensure the APIs explicitly support these dominant non-card payment methods:

• 🇧🇷 Brazil: Pix is mandatory. It accounts for the vast majority of local online transaction volume. If your fintech handles subscriptions or recurring billing, verify that the gateway has native infrastructure ready for Pix Automático . Local credit cards with installments (parcelas ) are also a primary user requirement.
• 🌏 Southeast Asia : The landscape is heavily fragmented by country. Ensure the provider aggregates regional real-time QR schemes like PayNow (Singapore), DuitNow (Malaysia), QRIS (Indonesia), and PromptPay (Thailand).

🛠️ Alternative Multi-Provider Strategy

If you prefer not to lock yourself into a single cross-border provider, you can design a multi-vendor gateway architecture . Under this layout, you use a developer-first platform for core payments while routing local flows to regional infrastructure champions:

• Southeast Asia Hub : Use Xendit or HitPay . They offer hyper-localized APIs built specifically for the Southeast Asian financial plumbing.
• Brazil Hub : Use PagBrasil or Pagar.me . They specialize natively in optimization for Brazilian authorization rates and localized fraud prevention.

To help tailor this stack, what is your startup's core monetization model (e.g., recurring SaaS subscriptions, B2B payouts, or a multi-vendor marketplace)? Knowing your average monthly payment volume would also help narrow down compliance structures.

If your priority is developer-first integration + deep local payment coverage in Brazil and Southeast Asia, I’d shortlist dLocal, EBANX, and Airwallex, with Adyen as the stronger “global enterprise gateway” alternative.

1. dLocal — my first choice for your use case

dLocal is unusually focused on emerging-market payment infrastructure rather than treating local methods as an add-on. It says it supports 60+ countries and 1,000+ payment methods through its platform.

For Brazil specifically, its current API supports Pix, Pix via Open Finance, Pix Automático, Boleto, Mercado Pago, PicPay, NuPay and BNPL, in addition to local card schemes.

Its SEA coverage includes methods such as OVO, ShopeePay, GCash, TrueMoney, Touch 'n Go, QRIS, ThaiQR and DuitNow.

Why I'd favor it: if “emerging markets” is the center of your strategy, dLocal has the deepest single-vendor proposition. It also offers payins and payouts, which can matter if your fintech eventually needs both sides of the money movement.

2. EBANX — particularly compelling for LatAm + SEA

EBANX is another strong candidate, especially if Brazil is strategically important. It advertises 200+ payment methods, 20+ countries and 100+ regional partners.

Its SEA footprint currently centers on Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, while its 2026 expansion announced operations in Malaysia and Vietnam as well.

The important distinction is that EBANX emphasizes direct connections to local payment players, local acquiring and unified cross-border settlement.

Pick EBANX over dLocal if your initial commercial strategy is particularly LatAm-heavy and you value EBANX's local-market specialization and cross-border settlement model.

3. Airwallex — best developer/platform experience

Airwallex is attractive if you're building a modern fintech product and want payments to be one component of a broader financial infrastructure stack.

Its payment-method catalog currently includes Pix in Brazil, while SEA support includes GCash, GoPay, GrabPay, ShopeePay, PromptPay, Thai online banking, Indonesian bank transfers, Philippines online banking and others.

The API/integration story is particularly good: hosted checkout, drop-in/embedded elements, native API, mobile SDKs and payment links are all supported across its payment-method ecosystem.

Caveat: its emerging-market footprint isn't as deep or broad as dLocal's, particularly if you need lots of country-specific APMs beyond the major SEA markets.

4. Adyen — excellent, but not my first pick for emerging-market-first

Adyen has an excellent API and broad global payment-method support. It supports Pix, for example, but its Brazil Pix integration currently requires the merchant to have a local Brazilian entity.

That illustrates the key difference: Adyen is fantastic when you're building a global acquiring stack, but vendors such as dLocal and EBANX are more explicitly designed around helping an international merchant penetrate markets where local payment methods and local infrastructure are essential.

My recommendation

For a fintech startup, I'd rank them:

1. dLocal → best overall coverage of emerging markets 2. Airwallex → best developer/platform experience 3. EBANX → excellent Brazil + LatAm and increasingly strong SEA coverage 4. Adyen → best mature global gateway, but less compelling if emerging markets are the primary challenge

One architectural point: don't evaluate them just by country count. Compare the exact methods you'll need—e.g. Pix + Pix Automático in Brazil; QRIS/GoPay in Indonesia; GCash in the Philippines; PromptPay in Thailand; DuitNow in Malaysia; and local bank/QR rails in Vietnam—plus whether each supports recurring payments, refunds, payouts, local acquiring, settlement currencies and merchant onboarding without a local entity.

For your specific requirement, I'd start an RFP with dLocal, Airwallex and EBANX, and make them price/commit against the same country × payment-method matrix. That will expose meaningful differences that headline “countries supported” numbers hide.