Razorpay partners with Airtel Payments Bank, forays into UPI infra space

Fintech major Razorpay, on Tuesday, announced its partnership with Airtel Payments Bank, to venture into UPI infrastructure service by offering UPI Switch to its customers.

According to a company statement, the solution can process up to 10,000 transactions per second (TPS), providing businesses with quicker access to UPI innovations. Razorpay claims that its UPI Switch can resolve issues seven times faster than the industry average, within just 24 hours.

By ensuring a latency below 100 milliseconds, an increase in success rates by 4-5%, and customizable features tailored to meet business requirements, Razorpay aims to elevate the payment experience for merchants, the company said. The company also claimed that its switch offering can process refunds instantly compared to the industry standard of up to three days

“This venture into UPI infrastructure marks a strategic move to manage the end-to-end merchant experience and provide the industry's leading stack. With latency below 100 milliseconds, a 4-5 per cent increase in success rates, and features customised to suit business needs, our switch is crafted to enrich the payment experience. It ensures that businesses can manage the surge in UPI transactions on any sale or non-sale day,” Khilan Haria, head of payments product, Razorpay.

“Our integration with Razorpay's UPI Switch, a Cloud-based infrastructure for the most advanced UPI Stack, ensures 99.99% uptime. It enables over 10,000 transactions per second,” Ganesh Ananthanarayanan, chief operating officer (COO), Airtel Payments Bank.

While processing a UPI transaction, banks connect with existing UPI infrastructure to connect core banking systems and UPI technology. This UPI switch and is powered by Technology Service Providers (TSPs) for banks.

Razorpay's approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as a payment aggregator has paved the way for onboarding new merchants, following a regulatory ban.

In February, the company unveiled various products, such as an upgraded payments gateway, a point-of-sale (PoS) device, a marketing stack, and an AI assistant for payments and payrolls.

In 2023, Razorpay achieved a total payment volume of $150 billion.