Cross River, a global financial infrastructure platform founded by fintech pioneer Gilles Gade, has brought its global expansion efforts to Sri Lanka, with EVP and Chief AI Officer Pravesh Rijal visiting Colombo recently.
Rijal’s visit, facilitated by Hatch, one of Sri Lanka’s leading start-up and innovation hubs and its founder Jeevan Gnanam, included meetings with senior executives from several of the country’s major banks, the Fintech Forum, Central Bank of Sri Lanka and Presidential Secretariat.
Discussions focused on enabling faster cross-border payments, expanding access to modern financial infrastructure for Sri Lankan businesses and exploring how artificial intelligence is reshaping the movement of money and the future of financial services.
The visit marks a significant step in exploring opportunities to connect Sri Lanka’s financial ecosystem with global payment networks and next-generation financial technology.
Cross River’s strategy centres on building regulated US dollar infrastructure that banks, fintech companies and businesses worldwide can access to support international transactions and financial innovation.
By connecting payment networks across currencies and markets, the platform aims to reduce friction in cross-border transactions while working alongside local financial institutions rather than replacing them.
Cross River already powers some of the world’s leading technology and fintech companies, including Stripe, X Money, Coinbase, Affirm and Upgrade. The company pioneered embedded finance through a technology platform built on its own real-time banking core. Today, Cross River operates at the intersection of banking, fintech, artificial intelligence and agentic commerce, as it continues to expand its global reach.
Hatch plays a central role in strengthening Sri Lanka’s start-up ecosystem by connecting entrepreneurs with corporates, investors, development partners and international markets.
