Recognition highlights Nium’s role in building the cross-border payments infrastructure powering a more connected travel ecosystem.
Singapore, September 16, 2026 — Nium, the global leader in real-time cross-border payments, today announced that its Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Prajit Nanu, has been named No. 17 on Skift’s 2026 Power Rankings, which recognizes 25 of the most influential builders shaping the future of travel.
Nanu appears alongside senior leaders from major global travel and technology companies including Amadeus, Airbnb, Expedia Group, and Marriott International. This year’s ranking spotlights leaders creating the infrastructure, platforms, and business models that are changing how the travel industry operates.
Skift recognized Nanu for spending the past decade building payment rails that help money move across borders with greater speed, transparency and efficiency — an increasingly essential capability for travel businesses operating across currencies, markets and fragmented payment systems.
“Travel is inherently global, but the financial systems supporting it have too often remained local, slow and disconnected,” said Prajit Nanu, Founder and CEO of Nium. “At Nium, we are building the infrastructure that helps travel companies move money as easily as travelers move around the world. I’m honored that Skift has recognized this work and the progress our team and partners have made in modernizing travel payments.”
Building the financial infrastructure for travel
Travel companies must orchestrate a complex web of payments: collecting from travelers, paying airlines, hotels, suppliers and affiliates, managing refunds, and settling transactions across borders and currencies. These processes have traditionally relied on legacy systems that can introduce cost, delay, reconciliation burdens and limited visibility.
Nium’s global payments infrastructure helps address these challenges through a single platform that enables businesses to pay out in more than 100 currencies, access real-time payments in approximately 100 markets, issue cards in 40 countries, and operate through licenses in more than 40 jurisdictions. Nium’s network reaches more than 190 countries and territories.
As Skift noted, Nanu’s experience with travel payments began with a personal frustration while planning a trip to Thailand, when he encountered difficulty arranging payment for accommodations. That experience informed a broader vision: while information can move instantly across borders, money has often failed to keep pace — particularly in a sector where airlines, travel platforms, hotels, and independent operators must coordinate across complex, decades-old financial systems.
Nium has continued to expand its travel payments capabilities through initiatives including the acquisition of travel payments company Ixaris, the launch of Nium Airline Payments with UATP, virtual card programs across Asia-Pacific, and a 2025 collaboration with hotel wholesaler G2 Travel to support hotel payments in more than 20 local currencies.
Advancing the next era of travel payments
Skift’s profile also highlighted Nanu’s focus on programmable money and stablecoins as potential next steps in the evolution of travel payments.
Programmable money can enable payment instructions and conditions — such as refunds, holds and payment splits — to be automated directly within payment workflows, reducing the manual reconciliation that many travel businesses manage today. Stablecoins may also help businesses reduce foreign-exchange friction and support more efficient, just-in-time funding models.
“Direct access is hard work,” Nanu said in Skift’s profile. “It requires regulatory investment, significant capital in some markets, and years of relationship-building with central banks, local payment schemes and local regulators.”
That long-term investment in regulated, direct payment infrastructure is central to Nium’s approach. As the travel industry becomes more global, digital and real-time, the ability to move funds securely and efficiently will be foundational to delivering better experiences for travelers and stronger economics for travel businesses.
Read Prajit Nanu’s full profile in Skift’s 2026 Power Rankings.
