In this episode, we sit down with serial entrepreneur Eric Barbier, who lives by a simple rule: “Where there is a problem, there is a business.”
Eric has lived several chapters of the fintech story. He built a mobile-messaging startup, enabled international prepaid top-ups, and supported mobile-wallet remittances across regions from Southeast Asia to Africa. Throughout those chapters, the same operational issues kept appearing—pre-funding requirements, weekend and holiday settlement delays, failed payments, fraud exposure, and chargeback risk.
Those long-standing inefficiencies eventually shaped his latest venture: Triple-A.io - a regulated payments institution that lets businesses accept and send stablecoins instantly, without ever handling crypto themselves.
In this conversation, Eric breaks down what stablecoins actually solve. They move in real time, operate 24/7, eliminate chargebacks, and are already used by hundreds of millions of people worldwide—addressing the exact bottlenecks he previously had to engineer around.
💡What You’ll Learn
How Eric built a mobile messaging network and turned it into an interconnect business.
Why international prepaid top-ups became a growth engine across emerging markets.
How mobile-wallet remittances expanded through local partnerships and on-the-ground sales insights.
What entrepreneurs rarely talk about: investor pressure, misaligned incentives, and lessons from a $400M exit.
How pre-funding, weekend delays, FX frictions, and chargebacks repeatedly surfaced in his cross-border ventures.
Why Eric concluded that stablecoins fix the same operational issues he battled for decades.
What stablecoin settlement actually looks like for merchants—speed, finality, and no chargebacks.
Why enterprise clients are increasingly requesting blockchain-based settlement rails.
How market adoption varies between Asia, Europe, and the U.S. FinTech landscape.
What practical leadership looks like inside a distributed, multi-market payments company.
How founder mindset evolves after multiple exits—and why Eric keeps building.
⏱️ In This Episode
00:00 - Introduction
01:20 - Origins
04:24 - The Asia Pivot
07:15 - First Exit Reflections
12:45 - Business Model Overview
13:56 - Why TransferTo Was Acquired
15:12 - Post-Exit Decisions
16:38 - Tackling the US Market
17:46 - Talking Directly with Clients is Key
18:16 - The SFO Experience
20:37 - Where Did the Idea for Triple-A.io Come From?
23:19 - Why Stablecoins Matter for Global Merchants
25:26 - Stablecoins vs Traditional Payment Networks
27:46 - The Broader Blockchain Era
28:41 - Stablecoin Adoption Trends
35:35 - Regulation, Licencing, Merchant Adoption
39:42 - Biggest Lessons and Mistakes as an Entrepreneur
41:45 - Understanding VC Expectations
42:00 - Differences Between East and West
44:46 - Managing Global Teams
50:34 - Leisure and Life
55:52 - Advice to Your Younger Self
59:07 - “If there’s a problem, there’s a business”
59:24 - “What I really love is proving my point”
📚 References
People & Founders
Eric Barbier, CEO, Triple-A.io - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericbarbier/
Companies, Platforms & Ventures
Triple-A.io - https://triple-a.io
DT One - https://www.dtone.com
TransferTo / Thunes - https://www.thunes.com/news/fintech-connect-live-interview-transferto-ceo-eric-barbier-on-mobile-money/
Trip.com - https://www.trip.com
Mobile Wallets, Telcos & Crypto
GCash (Philippines) - https://www.gcash.com
PayMaya / Maya (Philippines) - https://www.maya.ph
M-Pesa (Kenya) - https://www.safaricom.co.ke/personal/m-pesa
bKash (Bangladesh) - https://www.bkash.com
Singtel (Singapore) - https://www.singtel.com
Maxis (Malaysia) - https://www.maxis.com.my
Bitcoin - https://bitcoin.org
Regulators, Licenses & Jurisdictions
MAS – Monetary Authority of Singapore - https://www.mas.gov.sg
Movies
‘The Great Dictator’ by Charlie Chaplin - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032553/
🎙️ About Asia Tech Lens
Produced by Perspective Media (Singapore), Asia Tech Lens explores the technology, trends, and people shaping Asia’s innovation landscape — and its global impact.
For enquiries about:
sponsorships or collaboration: partnerships@asiatechlens.com
media or permissions: editor@asiatechlens.com
