New Delhi: 8B, a Central Asian fintech infrastructure company, has entered into a strategic partnership with PayU to introduce UPI and other Indian payment methods across Central Asia.
The 8B collaboration aims to bridge a critical gap in cross-border payments, enabling Indian tourists to transact seamlessly while supporting merchants across the region with access to India’s fast-growing digital payments ecosystem.
Through this partnership, 8B will integrate PayU’s APIs into its merchant network spanning Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and surrounding markets.
This integration allows Indian users to make payments using UPI, net banking, and debit or credit cards, creating a direct payment corridor between India and Central Asia.
The 8B initiative marks the first structured, one-way payment bridge between the two economies, aligning with the rapid growth in tourism and trade.
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Enhancing Payment Convenience for Indian Tourists
The 8B partnership comes at a time when India’s outbound tourism is witnessing significant growth. The country’s travel expenditure reached $18.82 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow to $55.39 billion by 2034.
Indian travellers, among the highest global spenders, are increasingly choosing Central Asia as a preferred destination, making 8B’s role in enabling familiar payment systems even more critical.
Kazakhstan continues to see strong inflows of Indian tourists, with India ranking among its top five source markets. Almaty alone recorded 1.14 million visitors in the first half of 2025, including over 323,500 international travellers, with Indians forming the largest group.
Uzbekistan has also witnessed a 22.7% rise in Indian arrivals in early 2025, while Kazakhstan welcomed approximately 250,000 Indian visitors in 2025, compared to 146,000 in 2024. The 8B integration ensures that these travellers can use UPI-based payments abroad without friction.
With the 8B–PayU API integration, merchants connected to 8B’s platform can accept UPI payments directly using existing infrastructure. No additional hardware or onboarding is required.
Transactions flow seamlessly through current systems, with UPI added as a payment rail. Beyond UPI, 8B also enables acceptance of net banking and Indian debit and credit cards, including RuPay, ensuring comprehensive payment compatibility.
In Kazakhstan, this payment enablement is supported by Zesta LLP, a licensed payment organisation (Licence No. 02-23-179), ensuring that all transactions processed through 8B comply with local regulatory frameworks.
From Tourism Growth to Trade Expansion
While tourism is the immediate driver, the 8B partnership reflects a broader economic trend. India–Kazakhstan bilateral trade reached $923.3 million in 2025, indicating growing commercial engagement.
The integration supports Indian consumers purchasing goods and services from Central Asian merchants, enabling funds to flow seamlessly across borders.
For merchants, 8B is not just a payments solution but a revenue enabler. Businesses offering air tickets, digital goods, and services can now cater to Indian customers without requiring changes in payment behaviour.
By aligning with familiar payment preferences, 8B helps merchants improve conversion rates and reduce checkout friction.
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8B – PayU Collaboration
“The India–Central Asia corridor is moving faster than the rails, roads, and payment systems built to serve it. The Indian visitor landing in Almaty today comes with digital habits shaped by UPI. Asking them to navigate a different payment experience abroad creates unnecessary friction. This is about making cross-border commerce feel as effortless as commerce at home – opens the door to a broader commercial relationship in which tourism is only the starting point,” said Bogdan Zadorozhnyi, Co-Founder & Chief Innovation Officer, 8B.
“Payments should not be a barrier for international travel or trade. Through our strategic partnership with 8B, we are eliminating any payment-related friction – making it effortless for Indian travellers to pay with UPI and other local methods across Central Asia while opening new growth corridors for merchants in the region. Our collaboration represents a significant step forward in PayU’s international growth strategy, through which we’re not just enabling transactions, we’re laying the foundation of the future of digital payments infrastructure between the two economies, one that connects India’s digital-savvy consumers with Central Asia’s rapidly growing travel and commerce sectors,” said Nikhil Mehta, Senior Vice President – Partnerships & Business Head – Growth Initiatives (Cross Border Payments & Affordability), PayU.
Central Asia’s Growing Tourism Momentum
Central Asia continues to emerge as a high-growth tourism region. Kazakhstan recorded 15.7 million foreign visitors in the first nine months of 2025, with tourism revenues from accommodation services reaching $536.8 million.
Uzbekistan ranked among the seven fastest-growing global tourism destinations in 2025, while Kyrgyzstan welcomed approximately 10 million visitors during the same year.
The 8B–PayU partnership aligns with this growth trajectory by introducing a robust payment infrastructure layer.
By connecting UPI with 8B’s merchant network, the collaboration enables seamless, real-time cross-border transactions, positioning both regions for deeper economic integration.
