This article is a part of Poland Unpacked. Weekly intelligence for decision-makers
Autopay is already establishing its first offices from São Paulo, through Milan and Abu Dhabi, all the way to Singapore. The company aims to compete through low margins, a broad range of services, and by hiring managers with deep knowledge of local markets.
“We will be an important player in the payments market not only in Europe, but globally,” says Wojciech Murawski, co-CEO of Autopay.
Recent coverage in XYZ has highlighted the international moves of Polski Standard Płatności, the operator of the BLIK system, and Zen.com, but these are not the only Polish payment institutions testing foreign waters. Another example is Autopay, founded in 1999 under the name Blue Media, a Sopot-based firm specializing in online payments.
Autopay opens offices in four new countries
In October 2024, Autopay’s CEO and co-founder Andrzej Antoń announced in XYZ a stronger push into foreign markets, including the opening of offices in São Paulo, Brazil, and Singapore. More than a year later, Wojciech Murawski, co-CEO since January 2025, confirms that the plans succeeded, and the company additionally opened offices in Madrid, Spain, and Milan, Italy, in 2025. Why these particular cities?
“Building local teams is part of our growth strategy. With local representatives, we stay close to merchants, partners, and build brand recognition,” says Mr. Murawski.
This means that, together with an existing office in Germany, the company now operates a network of five foreign branches with local teams, employing a total of several dozen people.
Next on the expansion list are Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, both slated to open this year. These offices are intended to serve as hubs for the Gulf countries, facilitating entry into neighboring markets in the region. The offices in Singapore and Brazil serve a similar purpose: holding a local license enhances the company’s credibility and accelerates market entry in nearby countries. Brazil, for instance, is set to act as a hub for markets such as Peru and Colombia.
Target: Entry into 50 markets worldwide
“We’ve reached the point where we know we want to grow even stronger and broader than we originally planned. We see that what we accomplished in Poland can be successfully implemented abroad. We already have initial examples showing that markets are receptive to our services. Our goal is to enter 50 markets within a predictable timeframe. We believe we will be an important player in the payments market not only in Europe, but globally,” says Wojciech Murawski.
Why exactly 50 markets? According to Autopay’s analysis, the fintech identified 50 countries with the greatest potential to transform their financial infrastructure into real-time operations – aligning with Autopay’s “zero delay” philosophy.
Autopay only needs to apply for a payment license in some of these markets, such as Brazil. In Singapore, no license is required. The company has already established a local entity there and signed its first contracts. Autopay adapts its market entry strategy depending on the specific characteristics and solutions of each market.
Eyeing expansion with online payment services
Entering a new market means there will be at least one person dedicated to actively building sales and partnerships with local institutions. In practice, it is usually two or three people from the target market. These individuals have a deep understanding of local conditions, enabling them to respond most effectively to customer needs. What do they plan to sell?
Primarily, the Autopay Payment Platform (APP). This is an expanded version of the so-called Payment Orchestrator – a tool that aggregates services from multiple payment providers, allowing them to be offered to clients in a unified format. APP combines the orchestrator with recurring payment capabilities, while also introducing payment innovations such as hand-based payments (HandGo), voice payments, and stablecoin settlements (token payments pegged to traditional currencies, e.g. the U.S. dollar).
“We want our platform to be the gateway for Autopay services into new markets. This means that we don’t necessarily need a license everywhere. It is enough to connect local payment methods through the orchestrator. Of course, in key regions we will seek a license, but this will depend on the market’s potential and the level of competition in basic payment services," emphasizes Wojciech Murawski.
In addition to the orchestrator, Autopay offers toll payment services on eight markets. The company is also working on implementing HandGo in several countries.
Autopay’s competitive edge is expected to lie in attractive pricing and the innovation that characterizes the Polish market. In October 2024, Andrzej Antoń announced plans to compete, in part, with lower margins than abroad. The Polish payment market is highly competitive, which results in significantly lower transaction processing costs than in Germany or Czechia – around 1 percent of the transaction value, compared with up to 3 percent in those countries.
Autopay gradually increases foreign revenue
As it expands its services across international markets, Autopay is counting on steadily growing brand recognition. Partly with this goal in mind, Wojciech Murawski, Andrzej Antoń, and Konrad Kucharski (the second co-founder) took part in the Leaders Forum powered by Poland during the World Economic Forum in Davos. There, they showcased their solutions, spoke about the idea of “zero delay,” and promoted Poland.
The starting point is solid. In 2024, Autopay generated PLN 1.21 billion (approx. EUR 280 million) in revenue, up 7.3 percent year on year. Under accounting classifications, this figure includes both goods and products. The former consist primarily of mobile top-up sales – a line of business the company does not operate abroad at all.
If only product revenue is taken into account, foreign markets currently account for just a few percent of Autopay’s total revenue. According to the 2024 report, exports of products – this category includes, among others, payments, transaction processing, and identity verification – reached PLN 13.62 million (around EUR 3.2 million), representing a 61 percent year-on-year increase.
Growth in foreign revenue is driven primarily by Autopay Mobility, a subsidiary that sells e-vignettes, enabling travel on toll road sections. In mid-2024, the business reached break-even. The application has been installed by a total of 3 million users across eight markets. The fintech is focusing on making the service available through the apps of additional banks. In 2024, it was rolled out, for example, by VeloBank.
Plans to offer eSIMs through foreign banks
Beyond mobile top-ups, Autopay in Poland specializes, among other things, in the BlueCash instant transfer system, a solution that competes with Express Elixir transfers operated by the National Clearing House (KIR). In December 2025, mBank discontinued BlueCash transfers for its customers. Autopay does not intend to abandon the service, however, as it continues to use it for internal purposes, including within its payment gateway. Slightly earlier, in October 2025, the company took over mobile top-up sales at Pekao bank.
Autopay also handles e-commerce payments, recurring payments (including utility bills), and SMS messages used to authorize banking transactions. Since 2019, under the Autopay Mobility brand, the company has been settling automatic payments for travel on the A1 and A4 motorways. In 2025, it began distributing eSIM cards through banking applications. At present, the service is available at two banks: Bank Millennium and PKO BP.
“We are in talks with additional banks, and I hope we will be announcing further implementations soon. Importantly, we want to work not only with Polish players. We intend to offer eSIM cards outside Poland as well, and we do not rule out providing this service beyond the EU,” reveals Wojciech Murawski.
The Autopay gateway serves tens of thousands of clients
At the same time, Autopay supports online retailers by providing a payment gateway. In this segment, it competes with providers such as PayU, Przelewy24, and Tpay. Currently, tens of thousands of online stores in Poland use its payment gateway, along with 3,200 merchants abroad. The gateway enables payments via bank transfers, cards, the BLIK code, as well as deferred payments (BNPL), where providers currently include PayPo, among others.
“This is by far our fastest-growing line of business. In Poland, in the e-commerce segment, we are growing year on year at a rate exceeding 30 percent,” says our interlocutor.
He declined to comment on whether Autopay will seek to handle card payments for the e-Tax Office. The provider is to be selected through a tender process, in which price is the primary criterion. As the executive explains, the company’s objective is not to compete solely on the lowest possible fee, but on profitability and quality.
“Rather than fighting at all costs for the sheer number of merchants served, we focus on offering local payment methods and unique service delivery models abroad. This allows our partners to grow their businesses using our products,” emphasizes Wojciech Murawski.
Building an AI agent and inviting partners to collaborate
He adds that the company is working to roll out its first AI agent by mid-year, designed to simplify both the purchasing journey and the payment process itself. Autopay is also continuing to develop HandGo, its palm-biometric authentication and payment system. Pilot programs for this solution have been underway in Poland and abroad since June.
Our interlocutor also notes that in 2025 Autopay is likely to report record revenues, although final figures will only be confirmed once the financial statements are published. A strong domestic market, he adds, will finance the company’s international expansion. Does Autopay need additional capital to grow abroad?
“We are open to partners who want to be part of Autopay’s global growth,” replies Wojciech Murawski, succinctly and somewhat enigmatically.
Expert's perspective
The biggest challenge – and the biggest mistake
The key challenges are regulatory and cultural. Even within the European Union, there is no truly single market. Each country represents a different ecosystem, with varying levels of digitalization, distinct payment and settlement habits, and its own specifics. Local interpretations of anti-money-laundering (AML) directives are particularly important in the financial sector. The real challenge, however, is not building the technology itself, but ensuring that it complies with the local environment and national legal frameworks. At the same time, this is what builds trust among customers who entrust us with their money.
What matters most for success in a local market: local managers, strong local partnerships, or a unique business model?
If I had to name one priority, it would be local managers. In practice, they act as daily “translators” of the business model into the language of a given market. A theoretically brilliant and scalable model is only the foundation. What you need are people with relationships who understand local law, culture, the business environment, as well as social and political dynamics. Partnerships, in turn, are the fastest route to scale and trust – both of which can take years to build from scratch.
Where is it easiest to fail?
The biggest mistake is “product arrogance” – the belief that success in, say, Poland can be copied wholesale abroad. Much depends on the product or service: some are more universal, such as cards for retail users, while others, like transactional banking, are heavily shaped by local conditions. Fintechs are always searching for a universal holy grail that allows them to scale regardless of market. The results vary.
There is another common pitfall. Companies often fail because they underestimate customer acquisition costs in mature markets, or because they spread their resources too thin by entering too many countries at once. In fintech, broad expansion across multiple markets combined with insufficient respect for local realities usually means rapid capital burn without ever reaching break-even.
Key Takeaways
- For now, international operations are not yet clearly visible in the group’s overall results. In 2024, product exports reached PLN 13.6 million (around EUR 3.2 million), but were 61 percent higher year on year. The fastest-growing segment is payments for travel on toll road sections, with Autopay already present in eight markets with this service. The company is also in talks about expanding its hand-based payment solution to additional countries. Will further capital be needed to fund expansion? For the time being, growth is financed by profits from Poland, but co-CEO Wojciech Murawski is inviting partners who want to be part of Autopay’s global growth story.
- Founded in 1999 in Sopot, the fintech Autopay has identified 50 countries with the potential to transition toward “zero-delay” payments and is building a network of hubs in Singapore and Brazil, with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to follow shortly. Over the past year, the company has also opened additional offices in Europe, in Spain and Italy. Not all of these markets will require a local payment license.
- Autopay’s competitive edge rests on pricing, technology, and a flexible market-entry model. The company aims to compete using margins generated in one of Europe’s most competitive markets, where transaction processing costs are around 1 percent, compared with as much as 3 percent in Germany or Czechia. This is complemented by a payment platform that includes, among other features, innovative palm-based and voice-activated payments.