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The recognition comes as Lewison’s decade-long commitment to building financial infrastructure for global commerce takes on new relevance.
HONG KONG, Oct. 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Lewison Chen, Founder and CEO of PhotonPay, has been named to Forbes China’s 2026 List of 100 Most Influential Chinese. Since founding PhotonPay in 2015, Lewison has focused on a challenge at the heart of global commerce: building the financial infrastructure that enables businesses to move and manage money across markets.
For companies expanding internationally, payments are only one part of a much broader challenge. Collecting revenue, managing liquidity and paying partners across jurisdictions can involve fragmented systems, multiple financial providers and complex local requirements. Lewison’s approach has been to address the infrastructure behind these activities, connecting the capabilities businesses need to operate globally.
A Decade in the Making
When Lewison founded PhotonPay, he saw an opportunity beyond individual payment products. As cross-border commerce expanded, businesses needed financial services that could work across markets, currencies and payment systems, yet the infrastructure supporting them remained fragmented.
He chose to focus on the underlying connections. This meant investing in technology, financial partnerships and compliance, building capabilities that could support businesses as their international operations grew more complex. Progress in financial infrastructure is necessarily incremental, often requiring the development of local capabilities and financial relationships market by market.
That long-term approach has shaped PhotonPay’s evolution. Rather than treating each payment as an isolated transaction, the company is building a financial operating platform spanning accounts, payments, card issuing and fund management. The objective is to give businesses a more coherent way to manage their finances across borders, without having to assemble and oversee a separate set of financial services in every market.
Turning Long-Term Conviction into Capability
Executing this strategy requires both technical depth and access to established financial networks. Under Lewison’s leadership, PhotonPay has developed real-time payment capabilities and AI-driven risk management systems, while establishing relationships with financial institutions and payment networks including J.P. Morgan, Mastercard, Circle and ClearBank.
These partnerships connect PhotonPay’s technology to the banking infrastructure and payment systems on which global commerce depends. Compliance is equally fundamental. Operating across jurisdictions requires appropriate regulatory permissions, robust risk controls and reliable operational processes. PhotonPay currently holds 33 financial licenses and regulatory authorizations across multiple jurisdictions, reflecting the regulatory infrastructure underpinning its global operations.
Today, the company serves more than 200,000 businesses worldwide. Its continued development reflects a central conviction behind Lewison’s founding vision: financial infrastructure should make international growth more manageable, not add another layer of complexity to it.
“Businesses expanding internationally need financial infrastructure that works across markets, rather than disconnected solutions for each stage of their operations,” said Lewison. “We are focused on bringing these capabilities together, with the technology, financial partnerships and compliance needed to support businesses as they grow.”
The Next Evolution of Financial Execution
The infrastructure required by global businesses will continue to evolve. In May 2026, PhotonPay and Mastercard completed a live demonstration of an agentic payment in Hong Kong, using a tokenized PhotonPay card to book and pay for a ride through mobility platform hoppa, with Mastercard Agent Pay supporting authentication and security.
The demonstration points to an emerging requirement for financial infrastructure: as more commercial tasks become automated, transactions initiated by AI agents will still need a reliable means of authorization and execution. Supporting these new use cases will depend on the same foundations that underpin conventional commerce: trusted payment networks, secure transaction mechanisms and clear controls.
For PhotonPay, this represents an extension of its existing direction. The company continues to develop its financial operating system to connect established financial infrastructure with evolving digital capabilities, while keeping the practical needs of global businesses at the center.
Forbes China’s recognition marks a milestone in Lewison’s entrepreneurial journey. The work behind PhotonPay remains rooted in the challenge that prompted its founding: building the financial connections that allow businesses to operate across borders with greater efficiency and confidence.
About PhotonPay
PhotonPay is a stablecoin-powered payment operating system built for global infrastructure. Designed for modern enterprises, PhotonPay enables businesses to send, receive, convert, and settle funds across both fiat and stablecoin rails through a single, compliance-first integration, spanning 200+ countries and territories.
For more information, visit [www.photonpay.com].