Cashfree Payments
Cashfree Payments is a Bengaluru-based fintech founded in 2015 that provides full-stack payment processing, payouts, and API banking infrastructure to over one million Indian merchants, including Swiggy, Zepto, Nykaa, and Cred, processing more than $80 billion annually under RBI Payment Aggregator, PPI, and PA-Cross Border licences.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2015
- HeadquartersBengaluru, India
- Headcount501–1,000
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Cashfree Payments does
Cashfree Payments India Private Limited is a Bengaluru-based fintech founded in 2015 by Akash Sinha and Reeju Datta, incubated by PayPal, that provides full-stack payment processing, payouts, and API banking infrastructure to over one million Indian businesses. The platform is anchored on three core rails — a Payment Gateway supporting 180+ payment modes, a Payouts engine for 24/7 bulk disbursements, and a SecureID KYC suite — extended by sub-products including One Click Checkout, Payment Links, Payment Forms, UPI AutoPay, eNACH, Subscriptions, softPOS, and the newly added International Payment Gateway. Technology is built on proprietary infrastructure including an in-house UPI Switch capable of 12K+ transactions per second, an in-house card switch with direct Visa/Mastercard/RuPay connectivity, AI-driven smart routing, and a 100M+ saved customer data network. The company holds all three RBI licences — Payment Aggregator (266/2025), Prepaid Payment Instrument (209/2024), and the first non-banking PA-Cross Border licence for both imports and exports — and is PCI DSS, ISO 9001, and ISO 27001 certified.
Cashfree earns revenue primarily through per-transaction fees on payment gateway processing, e-mandate recurring payments, cross-border transactions (projected to grow from 10-15% to 25% of revenue), and value-added services including identity verification and SoftPOS, with an enterprise field-sales motion complemented by self-serve onboarding (under 2 hours) and API-led embedded distribution through Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, and Zoho plugins. As of FY26, revenue is reported at close to ₹1,000 crore (~$119M USD), up from ~₹640 crore in FY25, with the company having achieved monthly EBITDA profitability while processing over $80 billion annually for customers including Swiggy, Zepto, RedBus, Nykaa, Cred, and Bigbasket. The company is backed by SBI, Y Combinator, KRAFTON, and Apis Partners (the latter two co-led a $53M Series C in February 2025), and is preparing for a potential IPO within 2-3 years targeting ₹3,000-4,000 crore in revenue.
Cashfree Payments firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Cashfree Payments
- Legal name
- Cashfree Payments India Private Limited
- Website
- https://cashfree.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2015
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 501–1,000 employees
- Short description
- Cashfree Payments is a Bengaluru-based fintech founded in 2015 that provides full-stack payment processing, payouts, and API banking infrastructure to over one million Indian merchants, including Swiggy, Zepto, Nykaa, and Cred, processing more than $80 billion annually under RBI Payment Aggregator, PPI, and PA-Cross Border licences.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Cashfree Payments industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Payment Processing Platform
- NAICS
- Financial Transactions Processing, Reserve, and Clearinghouse Activities (522320), Credit Card Issuing (52221), Activities Related to Credit Intermediation (5223)
- SIC
- Functions Related To Depository Banking, Nec (6099), Short-Term Business Credit Institutions (6153), Personal Credit Institutions (6141)
- akta.pro primary industry
- A2A Checkout & Merchant Acceptance Solutions (FSAMAFAF)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Embedded Payments (Pay-ins, Pay-outs, Wallets) (FSAGALAB), Bank-to-Bank Transfers & Pay-by-Bank (Consumer & Merchant) (FSAMAFAC)
Keywords
Where Cashfree Payments is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Bengaluru
- HQ country
- India
- HQ region
- Asia
Markets served
Cashfree Payments business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Payment Gateway Transaction Fees: Revenue earned per transaction processed through the payment gateway, supporting 180+ payment modes including UPI, cards, net banking, wallets, BNPL, EMI, and COD; pay only for actual transactions with no setup or maintenance fees
- e-Mandate / Recurring Payments Fees: Per-mandate setup fees (₹5 per mandate) and per-debit transaction fees (₹5 per debit) for automating recurring payments including subscriptions, loan EMIs, insurance premiums, and SIPs
- Cross-Border Payments Revenue: Revenue from cross-border transactions including import/export flows, with margins higher than domestic transactions; projected to grow from 10-15% of total revenue to 25% within a few years; multi-currency wallets and PSP license in GIFT City enabling international expansion
- Value-Added Services (SecureID, SoftPOS, eNACH): Revenue from identity verification (SecureID), Video KYC, SoftPOS solutions, eNACH mandate services, and other developer APIs; monetized per verification or as part of bundled enterprise offerings
- Enterprise API Banking Platform (Payouts): Revenue from API-based Payouts service enabling businesses to send money 24x7 to bank accounts, UPI IDs, cards, and wallets for vendor payouts, wage disbursements, bulk refunds; structured recurring payments for fintechs with built-in compliance
- Embedded Payments / Partner Revenue: Revenue from embedded payments offering, affiliate program, and partner integrations where platforms integrate Cashfree's payment infrastructure into their own products; monetized via revenue sharing and per-transaction fees
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Transaction based/ take rate | Pay-as-you-go | 10th Anniversary limited period offer: 1.6% (down from 1.95%) for India payment gateway pricing |
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | e-Mandate: ₹5 per mandate setup + ₹5 per debit transaction |
| Other | Pay-as-you-go | 180+ payment modes with custom enterprise pricing |
Go-to-market motion5 records
Cashfree Payments product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Cashfree Payments is a payments and API banking platform that enables businesses to accept payments, make payouts, verify identities, and process cross-border transactions across 180+ payment modes including UPI, cards, net banking, wallets, and BNPL. The platform serves over 1 million businesses processing $80B+ annually through its payment gateway, payouts, SecureID KYC verification, and international payment products, supported by in-house UPI Switch and Card Switch infrastructure.
Product overview
Cashfree Payments operates a platform-plus-modules architecture rather than a single product. The platform is anchored on three core rails — Payment Gateway (acceptance), Payouts (disbursement), and Secure ID (KYC and identity verification) — and is wrapped by newer core offerings including the International Payment Gateway, Embedded Payments, softPOS, One Escrow, Agentic Payments, Cashfree Here, and Pulse. Each core rail is extended by a portfolio of sub-products and add-on modules: under Payment Gateway sit One Click Checkout (built on the acquired Zecpe technology), Payment Links, Payment Forms, Buy Now Pay Later, Easy Split, BBPS-Biller, UPI QR Code, Subscriptions, UPI AutoPay, eNACH, and CardLink; under Payouts sit Cashgram, Fund Sources / Connected Banking (the flowWise acquired brand), and Instant Settlements; under Secure ID sit Video KYC, 1-Click Onboarding, Bank Account Verification, Aadhaar Verification, Aadhaar eSign, Face Match, and other document/identity APIs; under International Payments sit Global Collections, Global Payouts, and Send International Payments. Cross-cutting risk modules RiskShield Payment Gateway and RiskShield Payouts layer AI-driven fraud detection and smart routing across the rails, while Agentic Payments and Cashfree Here extend the platform to AI-agent and in-chat commerce via OpenAI Apps SDK and Anthropic MCP integrations.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Cashfree Here: India's first payments extension for AI applications, enabling in-chat UPI and card transactions within conversational AI platforms such as ChatGPT and Claude, announced at the India AI Impact Summit 2026.
- Pulse
- SecureID
- Agentic Payments
- RiskShield
Products and services
- Payment Gateway
Companies that use Cashfree Payments
Customer profileSegments1 record
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Cashfree Payments technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration18 records
AI capability18 records
Feature10 records
Cashfree Payments partnerships and signals
Strategic signalRecent moves7 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Cashfree Payments competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Razorpay: Razorpay is India's leading payment gateway and payout aggregator offering acceptance, payouts, and recurring billing with similar API-first architecture; it is Cashfree's most direct domestic competitor, backed by similar growth-stage VC investors and serving the same SMB-to-enterprise merchant base.
- PayU India: PayU is a global payment aggregator with a large India business offering payment gateway, payouts, and lending products; it competes head-to-head with Cashfree in Indian online checkout and is among the top three payment aggregators by merchant volume in India.
- Pine Labs: Pine Labs provides online and in-store payment acceptance plus payouts and lending infrastructure for Indian merchants; following its Setu acquisition it competes with Cashfree in payment gateway, payouts, and developer-first APIs, particularly for enterprise retailers.
- BillDesk: BillDesk is one of India's oldest payment aggregators and BBPS biller operators offering payment gateway, recurring billing, and bill collection products directly comparable to Cashfree's gateway and BBPS-Biller offerings.
- CCAvenue: CCAvenue is a long-standing Indian payment gateway supporting 200+ payment modes and competing directly with Cashfree in SMB and mid-market online acceptance; it overlaps heavily in product breadth and merchant target segment.
- Mobikwik: Mobikwik is an Indian digital payments and financial services platform offering payment gateway, payouts, and wallet services directly comparable to Cashfree, particularly in the SMB and tier-2/3 merchant segments.
Broad incumbents
- PhonePe (Payment Services): PhonePe is a dominant UPI-driven consumer payments app that has expanded into payment gateway and merchant acquiring through PhonePe Payment Services; while consumer-first, its gateway competes with Cashfree for merchant acceptance at scale.
- Paytm (Paytm Payment Services): Paytm operates a broad consumer payments and financial services platform with a payment gateway business serving online and offline merchants; its gateway offering overlaps with Cashfree's core acceptance product within a much wider fintech portfolio.
- Adyen: Adyen is a global enterprise payment platform that, like Cashfree, owns its in-house processing stack and supports cross-border acceptance; while focused on large global enterprises, it competes with Cashfree for international merchants selling into India and Indian enterprises selling abroad.
Emerging players
- Stripe (India operations): Stripe is a global payment processor that has expanded into India, offering APIs for online acceptance and recurring billing that directly compete with Cashfree's developer-first gateway, particularly for cross-border and SaaS merchants.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Cashfree Payments social profiles
Digital presenceCashfree Payments compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance5 records
Cashfree Payments financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Cashfree Payments leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles7 records
Cashfree Payments subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries1 record
Cashfree Payments funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds7 records
Investors9 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Cashfree Payments M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A2 records
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Cashfree Payments
What does Cashfree Payments do?
Cashfree Payments is a payments and API banking platform that enables businesses to accept payments, make payouts, verify identities, and process cross-border transactions across 180+ payment modes including UPI, cards, net banking, wallets, and BNPL. The platform serves over 1 million businesses processing $80B+ annually through its payment gateway, payouts, SecureID KYC verification, and international payment products, supported by in-house UPI Switch and Card Switch infrastructure.
Is Cashfree Payments a public or private company?
Cashfree Payments is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Cashfree Payments founded?
Cashfree Payments was founded in 2015. It employs 501 to 1,000 people.
Where is Cashfree Payments based?
Cashfree Payments is headquartered in Bengaluru, India, in the Asia region.
How does Cashfree Payments make money?
Six revenue lines are on record. Payment Gateway Transaction Fees are the primary driver. The others are e-Mandate / Recurring Payments Fees, cross-Border Payments Revenue, value-Added Services (SecureID, SoftPOS, eNACH), enterprise API Banking Platform (Payouts) and embedded Payments / Partner Revenue.
Who are Cashfree Payments's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Razorpay, PayU India, Pine Labs, BillDesk, CCAvenue and Mobikwik. Broad incumbents are PhonePe (Payment Services), Paytm (Paytm Payment Services) and Adyen. Stripe (India operations) is listed as an emerging player.
Does Cashfree Payments have an API?
Yes. Cashfree Payments offers public REST APIs spanning payment gateway, payouts, refunds, settlements, identity/KYC verification, and webhooks. Developers can build, automate, and integrate end-to-end payment flows. SDKs and code samples are available for curl, Java, Python, PHP, Node.js and other languages. A sandbox/test environment is available. The Cashfree Here extension integrates with the OpenAI Apps SDK and Anthropic Model Context Protocol (MCP) frameworks, enabling AI chat applications to invoke payment capabilities. Developer documentation is at www.cashfree.com/docs.
What industry is Cashfree Payments in?
Cashfree Payments's product category is Payment Processing Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSAMAFAF, A2A Checkout & Merchant Acceptance Solutions, with a secondary code of FSAGALAB, Embedded Payments (Pay-ins, Pay-outs, Wallets). Its NAICS code is 522320 and its SIC code is 6099.