Why Chinese startups like Manus AI rely on Stripe to go global

While Stripe does not have any plans to open an office in China or operate in the country at the moment, they have two approaches when it comes to working with Chinese companies.

At Stripe Tour Singapore 2025, Stripe’s global and regional leadership outlined how the company is supporting businesses across Asia Pacific and globally stay equipped for the changing landscape digital commerce. In 2024, Stripe processed over US$1.4 trillion dollars last year, up 38% from the previous year.

But what makes it more interesting is that China accounted for more than 70% of Asia’s $13B in AI investment in 2024. While Stripe does not have any plans to open an office in China or operate in the country at the moment, they have two approaches when it comes to working with Chinese companies. First, Stripe helps Chinese businesses expand overseas and second, Stripe helps global businesses serve Chinese consumers by enabling Chinese payment methods (e.g. UnionPay, WeChat Pay etc).

According to Paul Harapin, Chief Revenue Officer, APJ at Stripe, the rise of AI-first startups, new platform business models, and fintech innovation are driving Stripe’s growth in the region. When it comes to China, most of the companies, be it startups or enterprises share the common traits of achieving global reach, specialization and having innovative pricing strategies.

“We don't operate domestically in China, but the Chinese start-ups and the mega companies too, are all globally minded. The infrastructure and the way things happen in China, I think it's very digitally minded. WeChat Pay, Alipay, everyone has those wallets. There's not much cash anymore. I think that's a pretty comfortable space for domestic China,” he said.

Harapin explained the complexities come in for those merchants is who want to expand.

“Whether it's a ByteDance or a Temu, they want to expand into all these countries. The start-ups like the AI start-ups and the gaming companies, they're global from day one.”

“For Stripe, we can help take them to the rest of the world instantly through the same platform. So, if they (Chinese companies) want to be in Singapore today, Japan tomorrow, and Australia on Monday, they can do all of that through the one integration with Stripe and be ready to run. We can help them with Stripe Atlas, set up a Delaware company with all their share portfolios, Stripe account, all via the internet versus the long months and high costs it took previously,” explained Harapin.

Harapin also pointed out that the global uncertainties from geopolitics and tariffs surrounding China doesn’t impact how Stripe operates. Instead, he feels that the situation has a stronger impact on how Stripe’s customers are thinking about their growth.

From his observation in trips to China to meet with customers, the uncertainties have led to Chinese companies looking at options on how they can continue to pivot their business instead of stressing out of the situation and trying to find a solution. This includes looking at market opportunities in Europe and the Middle East.

“From our perspective, nothing changed in the way we operate. It just meant we're talking much more about European cities and expansion and Middle Eastern expansion, Latin America versus US as a primary objective whilst this uncertainty was going on,” concluded Harapin.

Manus AI

One Chinese startup that has been recording huge success with Stripe is Manus AI. To support its growth, the AI startup has moved its operations from China to Singapore and is focused on hiring more global employees to boost its capabilities after securing funding from a prominent Silicon Valley investor.

Speaking at the summit in a session with Harapin, Peak Ji, co-founder and Chief Scientist of Manus AI said that the AI startup has achieved a US$90M revenue run rate, with US$100M just around the corner since their launch in March this year. Manus AI offers a subscription fee for its users and is hoping to revolutionize GenAI in the industry.

“When we help Chinese startups go global, the challenges are not so unique. Underlying financial infrastructure, being able to grow cross-border in a seamless fashion is really a ubiquitous experience for all startups, wherever they're from. There are really some basic building blocks from our offerings. Obviously, the first one is payments, but we do so much more than payments. Basic startups are looking for solutions that help them through the life cycle of their transactions,” commented Sarita Singh, Regional Head & Managing Director, Southeast Asia, India, Greater China, Stripe during a media briefing at the summit.

Singh explained that as a startup or as a business, they would want to be able to accept money in. They would also want to seamlessly move money around the organization and optimize its movement and its observability. And then these startups and businesses would want the money to move out of the organization.

“So, you're paying suppliers or other third parties. All the building blocks for that are what Stripe offers. In addition to that, things that are important for companies that are going cross-border are regulatory and tax compliance. All of that is pre-built into Stripe's solutions. So, whether it's payments, billing, revenue and finance automation, tax solutions, all the infrastructure that is required for those three components of money movement within an organization, that's what Stripe is helping startups and large users do as we go cross-border,” said Singh.