Razorpay joins the league of unicorns in India with $100 mn fresh funding

Payments solution provider Razorpay on Monday said it has gained the 'unicorn' status after having raised USD 100 million funding from GIC, Sequoia Capital and existing investors.

Witnessing a 300 per cent growth in its business during the past six months, Razorpay said it has raised a Series-D fundraising of USD 100 million, giving the company more than USD 1 billion in valuation.

This round was co-led by Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC and Sequoia India, along with participation from Ribbit Capital, Tiger Global, Y Combinator and Matrix Partners.

Razorpay plans to use the new funding to further strengthen and accelerate two new product lines ? RazorpayX, neo-banking platform; and Razorpay Capital, its lending arm and invest in new initiatives to empower small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

By 2020-21, the company expects RazorpayX and Razorpay Capital to contribute to 35 per cent of its revenue, with a 100 per cent rise in the company's count of partner businesses. The funds raised will also be used towards hiring additional 500 employees by the end of the current financial year, it said.

The company will power payments and banking for 50 million businesses by 2025.

The new funding gives Razorpay USD 206.5 million in investments since its inception in 2014, including the recent USD 75 million Series-C funding in 2019.

"This funding represents a huge endorsement of our belief of powering the financial infrastructure for disruptive businesses, simplifying the entire money flow so that businesses can focus more on disrupting the Indian economy with their new ideas, products and experiences, everyday," said Harshil Mathur, chief executive officer and co-founder, Razorpay.

He said that in the past six months, RazorpayX has witnessed 100 per cent growth, primarily because the company built the product zero-up solely from the eyes of the customers' needs.

"Neobanking is a nascent but fast-developing space in the Indian market and has the potential to become the one-stop platform for a business' banking needs. This pushes us to develop new technologies that meet the rising demand," Mathur said.

The company said that despite the COVID-19 disruption, the Indian financial technology market is expected to grow to Rs 6.20 lakh crore by 2025. The significant demand for digital payments has accelerated Razorpay's growth during the pandemic, it added.

Choo Yong Cheen, chief investment officer (private equity) at GIC, said, "India has made significant strides in establishing a digital payments ecosystem and Razorpay has established itself as a clear leader, with its strong focus on customer experience and product innovation."

He added that GIC has a long track record of partnering with leading financial technology companies. "We look to support Razorpay's continued growth and its strong management team in this fast-developing space."

India's digital ecosystem is seeing unprecedented growth with online shoppers expected to cross 350 million by 2025. This trend of digitisation is penetrating India across social strata and geography, said Ishaan Mittal, principal, Sequoia Capital India LLP.

Razorpay said it witnessed a 500 per cent growth in 2019.
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The financial technology company said it currently powers payments for over 5 million businesses including Airtel, BookMyShow, Facebook, Ola, Zomato, Swiggy, Cred, and ICICI Prudential.
The company is set to double this to 10 million by the end of this year, it added.