Razorpay raises $160 mn funding from Sequoia Capital, GIC, others; valuation triples to $3 bn

Razorpay on Monday said it has raised $160 million (about Rs 1,192.6 crore) in funding from Sequoia Capital, GIC and others with the valuation of the payment solutions provider tripling to $3 billion.

The Series E funding round was co-led by Sequoia Capital and GIC, along with participation from Ribbit Capital and Matrix Partners.

"We will use the capital to scale up our Business Banking suite, invest in new acquisitions and launch in International markets, including South-East Asian countries," Razorpay CEO and co-founder Harshil Mathur said.

He added that the company also continues to hire aggressively to fuel its growth plans.

Bengaluru-based Razorpay provides intelligent automated payment and business banking solutions to help businesses manage their money flow end-to-end.

With this funding, Razorpay has raised a total of $366.5 million in funding since its inception in 2014.

The company had entered the Unicorn Club (companies with valuation of over $1 billion) in October last year, when it had raised $100 million.

The pandemic has provided a major boost to tech-led startups with a sharp increase in consumers opting for e-services like online classes, e-commerce and digital banking. This is also driving greater investor interest in these businesses.

In the past few weeks, a number of startups in the country including Meesho, Groww, ShareChat and Cred have raised funding and entered the Unicorn Club.

Mathur said the company's recent initiatives in the banking and lending space through RazorpayX and Capital have helped businesses solve challenges around managing money, empowering businesses to grow up to 10X in an economically challenging year.

"But there is more work to be done, we believe there is a dire need to develop new banking technologies that meet the rising demand. So, we plan to use these funds to further expand our banking and lending product suite so that we not only provide a better experience to businesses and their customers but significantly contribute to the growth of our partner businesses," he added.

Mathur noted that the company's neo-banking platform, RazorpayX, saw 400 per cent growth in transaction volume in the last 12 months.

In order to meet the increasing demand and creating value for the financial needs of businesses, a part of the funds raised will be invested in RazorpayX, to roll out new tailored products built on the latest technology stack, he added.

Mathur noted that these products will be designed to "enhance convenience, security, manage expenses better and help minimise a company’s financial risk in an increasingly uncertain digital environment".

The company has also helped disburse credit of upwards of Rs 700 crore per month to help entrepreneurs get access to working capital, and now plans to scale this up to Rs 1,000 crore a month by the end of 2021.

On geographical expansion, Mathur said Razorpay’s experience in building innovation for a market as diverse as India, can solve a range of fintech challenges in the South East Asian markets.

"Geographies like South East Asian (SEA) countries face similar payment issues like India, and we are looking at launching in one or two markets in the region before the end of the fiscal," he said.

Razorpay plans to hire on-ground teams in building a payment acceptance layer and work with multiple stakeholders on product customisation.

The fintech company is also scouting for B2B financial SaaS (software as a service) startups operating in sectors such as SME credit, accounting and taxation, accounts receivable and expense management.

"We will look at introducing more such products, through strategic partnerships and acquisitions which fit into our vision of making financial infrastructure easy and available to businesses across the country," Mathur said.

In 2019, Razorpay had acquired two companies - Opfin, a Payroll and HR Management Software company and Thirdwatch, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven company specialising in big data and machine learning for real-time fraud prevention.

Ishaan Mittal, Principal at Sequoia India, said digital payments is expected to become a $500 billion-plus market over the next 4-5 years.

"Sequoia Capital India is privileged to be partners in this journey and excited to deepen the relationship through this new round of funding,” Mittal added.

In the last six months, Razorpay has witnessed a 40-45 per cent growth, month-on-month.

Currently, the company has achieved $40 billion TPV (Total Payment Volume). It currently powers payments for over 5 million businesses, including Facebook, Airtel, Ola, Zomato, Swiggy, Cred and ICICI Prudential among others, and aims to reach 200 million customers by 2021.