Cashfree Payments Raises USD 53 Million/INR 450 Crore in Funding Round to Drive Product Innovation, Market Expansion and Global Growth

• Round saw participation from existing investor Apis Growth Fund II.
• Cashfree Payments provides businesses with a fast and easy way to collect payments online, make payouts, improve conversions, and verify identity and detect fraud during KYC and onboarding.
• The company has seen signups grow by 130% over previous years

Bangalore, February 5, 2024: Payments company Cashfree Payments, has raised USD 53 Million/INR 450 Crore in a funding round led by Korean digital entertainment giant,  KRAFTON and existing investor Apis Growth Fund II, a private equity fund managed by Apis Partners Group (UK) Limited (“Apis Partners”). The capital will accelerate Cashfree’s payments offering and boost market outreach. This collaboration will also position Cashfree to leverage synergies with KRAFTON, fueling innovation and pioneering new solutions across multiple digital sectors.

Cashfree helps businesses collect payments online and make payouts. With an easy onboarding and integration process, and compatibility with popular merchant platforms like Shopify, Wix, WordPress, WooCommerce, WhatsApp, Cashfree enables businesses to start transactions within a day. It offers features like one-click checkout, abandoned cart recovery, and return prediction, helping businesses improve the payment experience, boost conversions and grow profitably. Cashfree connects directly with major payment networks, ensuring high success rates and reliability at scale, enabling large businesses to process 12,000 transactions per second during peak demand with ease. It has also introduced Embedded Payments, allowing platforms, ERPs, and SaaS businesses to integrate payments as a feature into their product with ease and in a compliant manner.

Akash Sinha, CEO & Co-Founder, Cashfree Payments, said, “We are excited to welcome KRAFTON as a strategic partner with continued support from our existing investors, Apis Growth Fund II and the team at Apis Partners. Our mission at Cashfree Payments has been to empower Indian businesses with the ability to transact in the digital economy with unparalleled security and efficiency. This investment will help us accelerate our key efforts – across cross-border and security innovations and international expansion – as we enter the next phase of our growth journey. Growing sustainably has been core to our identity and how we function at Cashfree Payments. We are focused on driving profitable growth as we scale. Our mission is clear: to create long-term value for our customers and lead innovation in the payments space, both in India and internationally.”

Among recent innovations, the company has built Secure ID, an identity verification stack with a comprehensive suite of APIs and KYC components, addressing the surge in fraud. SecureID enables fintechs and startups to build onboarding and KYC flows by intelligently minimising user inputs, thus reducing drop-offs, intelligently reading and verifying identity documents, and precisely detecting frauds and anomalies. SecureID has completed more than 1 billion identity and user verifications till date.

Sean Hyunil Sohn, CEO of KRAFTON India, said “India’s fintech industry is experiencing remarkable growth, and we believe Cashfree Payment’s dominant position in India can be replicated globally. As the media and entertainment sector and content consumption patterns in India continue to evolve, full-stack payment systems that specifically address the needs and requirements of the sector are crucial for enhancing user experience. The investment is part of KRAFTON’s ongoing efforts to support innovative solutions that drive growth and foster a dynamic startup ecosystem. We look forward to further strengthening this partnership and exploring future opportunities.”

Matteo Stefanel and Udayan Goyal, Co-Founders and Managing Partners at Apis Partners, commented: “As an industry leader with a history of pioneering innovations, Cashfree Payments’ proven track record continues to put it in a leadership position. We are excited to extend our support for its continued growth and success. Apis’ investment philosophy is that there should be no trade-off between returns for LPs and positive societal impact, and the investment in Cashfree is proving to be a perfect example of that.”

In FY25, Cashfree has seen merchant signups grow 130% as compared to previous years and anticipates robust revenue growth, driven by increased wallet share from existing customers and continued success in cross-selling to its broad client base. Cashfree currently processes $80 billion annually and works with 800,000 businesses, from internet startups to public enterprises.

Cashfree is authorised by the Reserve Bank of India to operate as a payment aggregator for both domestic and cross-border payments (Import & Export), and was one of the first entities to be authorised. It is also authorised to issue Prepaid Instruments.

In India, Cashfree is trusted by leading brands like Swiggy, redBus, Zepto, big basket, Bajaj Finance and more. In addition to India, Cashfree Payments is expanding its footprint in the UAE and sees significant growth potential offering payments and related products across the Middle East.

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About Cashfree Payments:

Cashfree Payments is a leader in payments in India. Founded in 2015, Cashfree Payments processes transactions worth $80B annually for more than 800,000 businesses.

Businesses use Cashfree Payments to collect payments from 100+ payment methods, make payouts, make cross-border payments, improve conversions with a one-click checkout, recover abandoned carts, and predict and reduce returns. With an easy onboarding and integration process, and compatibility with popular merchant platforms like Shopify, Wix, WordPress, WooCommerce, WhatsApp, Cashfree Payments enables businesses to start transactions within a day. Cashfree Payments directly connects with all payment networks and owns its payment processing technology end-to-end, ensuring higher success rates and reliability. Built for scale, it enables businesses to process an industry-leading 12,000 transactions per second, handling peak demand effortlessly.

Alongside payments, Cashfree Payments offers SecureID, an identity verification stack with a comprehensive suite of APIs and KYC components. SecureID enables fintechs and startups to streamline compliant onboarding and KYC flows by minimising user inputs, thus reducing drop-offs, intelligently verifying identity documents, and detecting fraud and anomalies with high accuracy.

Cashfree Payments is authorised by the Reserve Bank of India to operate as a payment aggregator for both domestic and cross-border payments, and was one of the first entities to be authorised. It is also authorised to issue Prepaid Instruments.

Cashfree Payments is backed by Silicon Valley investor Y Combinator, Apis Partners, State Bank of India (SBI), and was incubated by PayPal.

About KRAFTON, Inc. 

Headquartered in South Korea, KRAFTON, Inc. is dedicated to discovering and publishing captivating games that offer fun and unique experiences. Established in 2007, KRAFTON is home to globally renowned developers that include PUBG STUDIOS, Striking Distance Studios, Unknown Worlds, VECTOR NORTH, Neon Giant, KRAFTON Montréal Studio, Bluehole Studio, RisingWings, 5minlab, Dreamotion, ReLU Games, Flyway Games, Tango Gameworks and inZOI Studio. Each studio strives to continuously take on new challenges and leverage innovative technologies. Their goal is to win over more fans by broadening KRAFTON’s platforms and services. With a passionate and driven team across the globe, KRAFTON is a tech-forward company that possesses world-class capabilities and is set on expanding its business horizons to encompass multimedia entertainment and deep learning. For more information, visit www.krafton.com.

About KRAFTON India 

In India, KRAFTON is responsible for premier mobile games, including BATTLEGROUNDS MOBILE INDIA (BGMI), which has surpassed 200 million downloads, Bullet Echo India, Road To Valor: Empires, and CookieRun India, among others. Committed to enhancing the start-up ecosystem in India, KRAFTON has invested over $170 million in several Indian startups across interactive entertainment, gaming, Esports, and technology, since 2021. KRAFTON actively supports India’s game development ecosystem through its KRAFTON India Gaming Incubator (KIGI) while strengthening the Esports ecosystem with flagship events like the BATTLEGROUNDS MOBILE INDIA SERIES (BGIS) and BATTLEGROUNDS MOBILE INDIA PRO SERIES (BMPS). For more information, visit https://krafton.in/

About Apis Partners

The Apis Group (“Apis”) is an ESGI-native private equity and venture capital asset manager that supports growth-stage financial services and technology businesses globally by providing them with catalytic growth equity capital. Collectively Apis, through its team of around 40 professionals with deep industry expertise, manages or advises on total AUM of c.US$2.3 billion.

Headquartered in London, Apis has representation in seven countries globally. Apis is highly conscious of the impact that the provision of growth capital for financial services and technology businesses in global markets can achieve, and as such, financial inclusion and financial wellness are core tenets of Apis’ impact investment approach.

https://apis.pe/