Fintech startup Razorpay raises $100 mn in growth funding round

Bengaluru-based Razorpay Software, which operates payments platform Razorpay, has raised $100 million in a growth funding round led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and returning investor Sequoia Capital.

The round also saw participation from returning investors Ribbit Capital, Tiger Global Management, YCombinator and Matrix Partners, the company said in a statement. 

The Series D round values Razorpay at over $1 billion, marking its entry into the startup unicorn club in India, the statement said. One97 Communications-owned payments and digital wallet company Paytm is the most valued startup unicorn in India at $16 billion.

The startup said it will use the fresh capital to accelerate its new product lines and hire 500 employees in financial year 2020-21. 

The company has raised a total of $206.5 million in equity capital so far. Its last fundraise was in June 2019, when Ribbit Capital and Sequoia led a $75 million round in the company. 

Founded in 2014 by Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar, Razorpay claims to serve over a million businesses. In fact, the company, which offers payment gateway services to businesses, saw 70% of its revenue coming from the stream as of November 2019. 

Razorpay also provides short-term working capital and business loans through its platform Razorpay Capital and offers neobanking solutions through Razorpay X. Mathur expects the lending and neobanking businesses to make up 35% of the company’s revenue stream for FY21. 

“Over the last six months, RazorpayX has witnessed 100% growth, primarily because we built the product zero-up solely from the eyes of the customers’ needs,” Mathur said in the statement. 

In an interview with TechCircle earlier this year, he said that the lending business had seen a slowdown due to the Covid-19 lockdown.

The company acquired Gurugram-based payroll management system Opfin and real-time fraud detection company Thirdwatch in 2019.