With the developing tech ecosystem in India, competitors are also increasing in the market. Previously, very few people had the guts to take a risk and do something unconventional. But, once a company achieves success, competitors keep on increasing because everyone wants to follow what’s trending. With the developing tech ecosystem in India, competitors are also increasing in the market. Previously, very few people had the guts to take a risk and do something unconventional. But, once a company achieves success, competitors keep on increasing because everyone wants to follow what’s trending. Similarly, only a few years ago who would have thought about money transfer with a swipe of fingers. But, now so many companies are trying to establish easy and secure online money transfer facilities. Razorpay, a company founded in May 2014 and promises a secure, developer-friendly payment system for every Indian user. The platform can access any kind of payment method through Razorpay which includes net banking, debit card, credit card, and also wallets like Ola Money, Airtel Money, etc.
About the Founder
Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur are the founders of Razorpay. Shashank did his schooling from St. Xavier’s High School, Patna. He went to IIT Roorkee and completed his bachelor’s in Computer Science and was also a part of Y Combinator 2015.
While his time at IIT, Shashank worked as the summer intern at the University of Minnesota and also at Microsoft during the next summer. He joined SDSLabs and worked there as the Vice President for one year. Before founding Razorpay, Shashank worked at Microsoft as a software development engineer.
Harshil also went to IIT Roorkee and was an employee at SDSLabs. He also worked at Schlumberger as Wireline Field Engineer for nine months. Currently, Harshil serves as the CEO of the company, Razorpay.
The Initial Stage Of Razorpay
The start-up started through the Y Combinator program and initial it raised $2.5 million in the seed funding round. The seed funding round was led by Matrix Partners along with other investors which includes Jeff Huber, Justin Kan, etc. In 2015, the company raised another $9 million from the funding round led by Tiger Global.
The founders started the company in Jaipur and in 2015 they shifted the headquarters to Bengaluru. The company had a fifteen-member team by this time. The money that was raised in this round was planned to invest in exploring other segments of the payment industry and building other products.
Baby Steps
When Shashank and Harshil co-founded Razorpay, a lot of competitors were already present in the market. So, they set small goals and gradually expanded the company. The best thing about using Razorpay is the user can carry out a transaction using the 2G net. So, within a couple of years after founding Razorpay, the users witnessed a 30% higher success rate. By the end of 2015, 1,800 merchants were using the platform of Razorpay.
Many start-ups also started using Razorpay as their primary money transaction platform. The start-ups include Lookup, LocalOye, NeoStencil, and many more.
Getting Bigger
In 2016, Mobikwik came into a partnership with Razorpay. This gave Razorpay access to Mobikwik’s Power Wallet API and the success rate increased. By this time, Razorpay did business with 3,000 merchants and they were expecting 1,000 more by the end of the year. After the partnership with Mobikwik, the business deals of Razorpay increased geometrically.
The code of conduct
Shashank said that his time in Microsoft taught him the quality of leadership. The one thing and the founding rule of Razorpay are that be honest with your clients. Shashank follows it strictly and he expects every employee of his office to maintain this standard.
Success
In 2018, Razorpay raised $20 million from Tiger Global and Matrix Partners. In 2017, Razorpay came into a joint partnership with Telegram for chatbot payments. This Company came up with its advanced version of Razorpay 2.0 during this time.
In 2019, the company raised $75 million from the funding round led by Ribbit Capital. After this round of funding, the company raised a total funding of $450 million. They have also declared that the new funding will be invested in new sectors of the company. Currently, they are focusing on the neobanking platform Razorpay X and its lending arm Rayzorpay Capital. This strategy is a part of Rayzorpay 2.0.
Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more