Razorpay Unveils Forex Service For Startups To Transfer Funds Raised Globally To India

RazorpayX, the business banking platform of fintech unicorn Razorpay, has rolled out a new product – Forex Service for Startups. The new service will enable Indian startups to seamlessly transfer the funds they have raised globally to India, the company said in a statement.

Within three months of its beta launch, the service has enabled over 15 startups, including Virohan, Tortoise, Coupl across edtech, fintech, and financial services, among others, to transfer funds to India.

With the new service, the company aims to impact and benefit over 1,000 startups that are likely to raise foreign funding this year, the statement added.

Forex transfers in India catering towards startup funding are riddled with several gaps as the process is expensive, slow, and complicated and involves multiple compliance paperwork. It eventually takes over 2 months in addition to a hefty late submission fee which compounds with each day of delay, Razorpay said.

With the help of its partner banks like RBL Bank and other leading banks, Razorpay Forex Service aims to offer cost-effective, transparent, and faster processes via a seamless single window offering. The service will also offer automated paperworks.

“India has become one of the most attractive investment destinations globally over the years, resulting in a 20-fold jump in FDI inflows since 2003-04. However, owing to the complex processes involved, the majority of the inflow is restricted to a handful of companies who can navigate through the long and expensive compliance processes,” Rahul Kothari, Chief Business Officer of Razorpay, said.

Razorpay found out through its conversation with founders that challenges such as dense paperwork, compliance and burgeoning costs need to be solved to increase the leverage of foreign funds for the Indian startup ecosystem, Kothari added.

“Our aim therefore was to foray into a new segment and create a solution that would help democratise foreign funds for startups of all sizes and enable them with limitless possibilities to grow tremendously. With an annualised run rate of INR 350 Cr under this forex service so far, we expect this service to scale up by 3-4X in the next financial year,” Kothari said.

Founded by Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur in 2014 as a payment gateway platform, Razorpay has branched out into divisions such as SME payroll management, banking, lending, payments, insurance, among others.

Razorpay turned profitable in FY21, posting a net profit of INR 7 Cr on a standalone basis. The Bengaluru-based startup’s revenue from sales rose 65.2% to INR 841.2 Cr in FY21 from INR 508.9 Cr in FY20.