Toronto’s First Global has recently expanded with the establishment of First Global Indonesia and tapped Rajeev Verma to serve as the hub’s CEO.

First Global Indonesia, which will serve as the company’s hub for international financial-services technology, (fintech) initiatives for the PayQwik Brand, will be based in Jakarta. The company announced that it plans to introduce a variety of mobile payment options to the Indonesian market focused on banking, telecommunications and E-commerce.

First Global chairman and CEO Andre Itwaru said in a press release that the company was reaching a market, which statistics show has become the third largest market for smartphones in the Asia-Pacific region.

“Setting up a fintech presence in Indonesia is timely and opportunistic,” Itwaru said. “Indonesia currently suffers from low fintech penetration and it is our intent to exploit this opportunity with our cutting-edge technology.”

“Because of a very large population base, Indonesia provides scale and scope for fintech pursuits and provides us with a solid base for regional deployments,” said Itwaru.  

According to a study by Emarketer, smartphone users are expected to rise to 92 million by 2019, with Indonesia ranking third in the smartphone market.

As a fintech company, First Global works in the area of providing technology for mobile payments and cross-border payments.