Indian Payments Startup Cashfree Raises $53M in Funding Led by Krafton

Cashfree, an Indian payments startup, has announced a new funding round of $53 million led by Krafton, the maker of popular games like PUBG and BGMI. This Series C financing round also saw participation from existing investor Apis Growth Fund, valuing Cashfree at $700 million. Cashfree, founded 9 years ago, has raised nearly $100 million to date and processes over $80 billion for its customers annually. 

The partnership between a gaming company and a payments startup is seen as strategically valuable by both firms. The collaboration is expected to yield seamless payment flows for smaller ticket sizes. While Cashfree currently does not process payments for games like BGMI, discussions on a potential partnership are underway. 

Krafton sees Cashfree's dominant position in India as potentially replicable globally. Cashfree offers a wide range of products, including payment gateway services, automated payouts, and innovative features such as PayToPhone and RiskShield for fraud prevention. The startup is aggressively expanding in the Middle East, focusing on markets such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and Kuwait, which are developing their own domestic payment systems similar to India’s UPI and RuPay networks. 

Cashfree has also secured two additional licenses, including one for cross-border transactions, and has gone live with several international customers. Its technology stack allows businesses to process up to 12,000 transactions per second during peak demand. 

The startup has also developed SecureID, an identity verification system that has performed over a billion verifications to date, aiding businesses in combating fraud. Cashfree is one of the first companies to receive authorization from India’s central bank to operate as a payment aggregator for both domestic and international transactions.

For Krafton, this investment aligns with its broader strategy in India, where it has invested nearly $200 million across several startups.

Source: Tech Crunch