Cashfree Payments

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.

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

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

• Payment gateway services
• Cross-border payments
• API banking platform
• Payouts processing
• KYC verification services

Headquarters

HQ city

Bengaluru

HQ country

India

HQ region

Asia

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. 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
2. 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
3. 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
4. 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
5. 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
6. 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

Go-to-market motion5 records

Core 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

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration18 records

AI capability18 records

Feature10 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct 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

• Xx.com/gocashfree
• GitHubgithub.com/cashfree
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCX06yVYIREbM4lMRwVi_6Aw
• Facebookfacebook.com/gocashfree
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cashfree
• Instagraminstagram.com/cashfree.payments

Compliance5 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds7 records

Investors9 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A2 records

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Cashfree Payments