PayPal launches two technology innovation labs in India

NEW DELHI: Digital payments and technology company PayPal has launched its newest Innovation Labs at the Chennai and Bangalore Tech centres.

The lab is the first by PayPal in India and its third after the USA and Singapore. The lab will serve as a platform to promote innovation which is a core value for PayPal globally.

These Innovation Labs will actively support innovation across diverse fields including machine learning, Artificial Intelligence, data science, IoT, penetration testing, software defined radios and wireless communication, VR/AR, computer vision and basic robotics. The facility will also house a diverse range of hardware and gadgets for PayPal employees to experience and tinker. The equipment includes Raspberry Pi with full sensor kit, AlphaBot kit, IoT kit, Amazon Echo, AIY kit, Leap motion, 3D printer as well as Proxmark 3 Kit, HackRF One and Ubertooth One for computer security enthusiasts.

“India is a hotbed for innovation given its evolving startup ecosystem, diverse merchant profiles and enormous talent pool. To cater to their needs in the most effective manner, we are delighted to announce the launch of our newest Innovation Lab in India, where the focus will be on fueling new age technology and giving rise to unconventional ideas with the potential to transform the ecosystem we operate in,” says Mike Todasco, Director of Innovation, PayPal.

With a focus on three core areas – Productivity, Innovation, and Education, these facilities will serve as spaces to build and refine new and advanced technologies and will create a forum for employees to engage and ideate across a spectrum of themes.

“With over one lakh 45 thousand registered patents<2> between 2013-16 to its credit, India’s innovation potential is enormous and will certainly break benchmarks with the right kind of encouragement. Enabling innovation and creating amazing experiences for our customers is at the heart of PayPal’s global success and the Innovation Lab is another step to foster this spirit in our development centers in India,” says Guru Bhat, GM Technology & Head of Engineering– PayPal.

These labs will also be integrated with some of PayPal’s on-going initiatives such as the PayPal Incubator, launched in 2013, with the objective of developing and nurturing the next generation of fintech startups.