London-based private equity investor Apis Partners is pumping $35 million into Cashfree in exchange for a minority equity position in the company.
Apis, which made the investment through its Apis Growth Fund II, said in a press release that it was attracted by Cashfree’s “strong growth and profitability as well as its product innovation.”
Launched in 2015 by founders Akash Sinha and Reeju Datta, Cashfree says its digital payments platform is now used by 50,000 businesses across India to pay wages to employees and payouts to vendors as well as bulk refunds.
The coronavirus pandemic has also helped boost Cashfree’s growth as Indian businesses and consumers ramp up their online sales and purchasing activity.
The startup has been profitable since its first year in business and, as of March, was processing $12 billion a year in annualized payments, the company said in a press release announcing the funding.
Merchants using Cashfree’s platform include top eCommerce companies like “Cred, Big Basket, Ixigo, HDFC, Livspace, Xiaomi, Zomato, Shell, Acko, Zoomcar, Medlife, Delhivery and Dunzo,” according to the announcement.
“As digital payments proliferate globally, the Indian market continues to represent one of the most exciting opportunities that we see in the world,” Apis Co-Founder and Managing Partner Udayan Goyal said in the press release. “Cashfree has maintained a leadership position in this space and is now going through a period of rapid growth.”
Cashfree is a “2017 alumnus of Y Combinator,” the San Francisco-based startup incubator, according to the release.
Cashfree’s Payment Gateway covers 100 payment channels, from debit and credit cards to “RuPay, UPI, bank transfers, wallets and various [installment] options,” the release said.
The firm’s Payouts solution, in turn, “helps businesses send money instantly to bank accounts, cards, UPI and wallets” through an API “that can be integrated with their products or directly into their ERP systems,” the release noted.
“We are very excited to have Apis as an investor and partner and value their extensive experience investing in high growth digital payments companies,” Akash Sinha and Reeju Datta, co-founders of Cashfree, said in a statement.