Global payments firm PayPal on July 23 announced PayPal World, an interoperability platform that connects India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and some of the world’s other largest digital wallets, to enable seamless international payments and money transfers across borders.
India’s NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL), the global arm of the entity behind India's UPI’s railroads, is one of the five initial launch partners of the initiative alongside PayPal, Venmo, China’s Tenpay Global (Weixin Pay) and Latin America’s Mercado Pago. Collectively, these platforms represent nearly two billion users globally.
“The integration of UPI on PayPal World’s platform will mark a significant step in expanding UPI’s global footprint. It aligns with our vision to make cross-border payments more seamless, secure, and inclusive,” NIPL managing director and CEO Ritesh Shukla said.
“This collaboration will enhance convenience for Indian users making payments abroad and enable global businesses and merchants to tap into a growing base of UPI users.”
The move puts India at the centre of PayPal’s global interoperability push, as the payments giant builds what it calls a “first-of-its-kind payments ecosystem”.
According to PayPal, the platform will go live this fall and is designed to let users shop online, pay in-store or send money globally using their domestic wallets and currencies, with no additional integration required by merchants.
“The challenge of moving money across borders is incredibly complex, and yet this platform will make it so simple for nearly two billion consumers and businesses,” PayPal president and CEO Alex Chriss said. “We believe the changes we are announcing today have the potential to be a real game changer over time.”
What is in it for Indian users?
While UPI has made strides toward international expansion through bilateral partnerships with countries such as Singapore, the UAE and France, the actual usability of Indian apps such as PhonePe, Paytm, and Google Pay abroad remains limited.
These apps typically work only in select markets, and recent restrictions, such as NPCI disabling QR-based “Share & Pay” for international UPI merchant transactions in April, have further curbed global functionality.
PayPal World addresses this gap by offering a platform-level integration. Instead of waiting for each UPI app to expand individually into new geographies, users will be able to access UPI within the PayPal interface, instantly enabling international use without requiring credit cards or special remittance channels.
An Indian user, for instance, buying sneakers from a US-based online store will be able to click on PayPal at checkout and see the UPI button they know to complete the payment in rupees.
“A UPI user in India wants to buy a pair of sneakers from an online store in the USA. When they click on the PayPal button at checkout, they will see the UPI button they know to complete the transaction,” the company said, explaining a use case.
Likewise, when travelling to China, a PayPal user could scan a Weixin Pay QR code with their PayPal app to pay at a local café.
The platform is designed to be technology-agnostic and will also support AI-driven agentic shopping, stablecoin payments, and dynamic payment buttons in the future.
“PayPal World is ready for the future of commerce,” the company said, describing its architecture as a “cloud-native, multi-region deployment” with open APIs, robust safety protocols and seamless global uptime.
Venmo goes global, with PayPal
In another major development, PayPal World will make PayPal and Venmo interoperable for the first time, allowing users to send money between the two platforms globally.
“This new functionality will allow PayPal and Venmo users to send money to each other, anywhere in the world,” the company said. “This marks a pivotal moment for Venmo and PayPal, connecting one of the most iconic social payments platforms to the full scale of PayPal’s global network.”
From 2026 onward, Venmo users will also be able to shop at any global merchant that accepts PayPal—giving merchants access to a younger, urban, and digitally savvy customer base.
“Connecting Venmo to PayPal World is the next step in expanding its utility… from everyday payments and in-store commerce to international money movement on a global scale,” the release said.
More wallets to follow
PayPal said more wallets will join in the coming months as the platform expands globally. “We can’t wait to welcome many more global partners, wallets, and their users soon,” Chriss said.
For Indian consumers, the real shift lies in finally being able to use UPI —India’s most popular payment system — for everything from global shopping to remittances, without needing to switch to international cards or unfamiliar apps.
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