In December last year, Razorpay turned 10.

The Bengaluru-based startup, founded by IIT graduates Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar, has had a front-row seat to India’s fintech revolution.

Razorpay’s journey from 2014 to today essentially overlaps with fintech as a whole. From demonetisation in 2016, which thrust India towards digital payments, to the rise of digital commerce and cross-border payments — Razorpay was there when fintech became a relevant word has aligned its vision since then to stay on the bleeding edge.

From a minor player in the ecommerce space, Razorpay today processes $180 Bn TPV (total payments volume) annually, with plans to hit a $1 Tn target in the next few years.

It’s not just about serving ecommerce merchants and online stores anymore though — today it is a payments partner for more than 80 Indian unicorns, which underlines its position as a key link in the ecosystem. And as India’s startups mature, Razorpay is keeping pace.

Beyond the revenue, the next big step for the unicorn is an IPO.

A public listing was always on the cards, but in many ways Razorpay’s plans have accelerated due to the momentum on the ground. This is THE time to go for an IPO in India as a mature and scaled-up tech company.

So naturally Mathur and Kumar want to capitalise. The two founders also have an eye on wealth creation for the 3,000-plus employees at Razorpay today, many of whom have been part of the ESOP programmes since 2018.

But it’s not easy to take a stride towards the public markets just because market conditions are true. For Razorpay, the past 12-24 months have also included critical milestones such as redomiciling to India, getting approvals from regulators for payment aggregator vertical and onboarding merchants and enterprises by the thousands.

For Mathur, the challenges have coincided with a wave of confidence stemming from the post-IPO trajectory and journey of Zomato, Paytm, Policybazaar and others in 2021. These companies answered many of the questions that markets were asking, and even though not completely in the case of some, it gave Mathur and other IPO-bound founders plenty of conviction.

Launching Griffin Dialogues

In a freewheeling chat with Inc42 — part of the all-new Griffin Dialogues series — Razorpay cofounder and CEO Mathur gives us a glimpse of how the company’s actions have followed this broader conviction, and how the fintech unicorn set itself up for this moment.

“The key is to persevere through the bad times, as they eventually lead to the good ones,” he tells Inc42.

Griffin Dialogues is our way of contextualising the upcoming Griffin Retreat By Inc42 — an unprecedented confluence of the founders leading India’s new-age IPO wave. Set for February 22-24, 2025, Griffin Retreat is a gathering of 100 unicorn and soonicorn founders for the first time in India, but it’s also bringing together many of the founders that are preparing for the IPO jump.

Over the next few weeks, Inc42 is delving deep into what’s driving the founders that are taking this leap — many of whom will be part of the Griffin Retreat.

To start things off, Mathur takes us behind the curtain as Razorpay prepares the stage for its IPO.

Edited excerpts

Inc42: Redomiciling is a major trend among unicorn companies today. What motivated Razorpay to consider this step, and how did you arrive at this decision?

Harshil Mathur: When we started thinking about our future, especially in terms of an IPO, we had to decide not just when we wanted to go public but also where. It became quite clear to us that India is our home market. This is where people know us, use our services daily — directly or indirectly — so it made logical sense to list here.

Another key factor was the growth of India’s public market.

When we started Razorpay and even a few years ago, India didn’t have the ecosystem to support large public IPOs, and in the technology sector. But now, with the success of companies like Zomato and Policybazaar, we’ve gained confidence that India can absorb large IPOs in tech.

So, for us, it was simple. If we plan to go public in India, it’s better to redomicile here as soon as possible. That way, when the time comes for our IPO, the process will be much smoother.

Obviously, there’s a regulatory process that companies need to follow. Thankfully, the government has recently made this easier, which is a welcome step.

Inc42: What was that experience like for you? What can other startups look forward to when they reverse flip?

Harshil Mathur: The key challenges are regulatory approvals, getting all stakeholders on board, and managing any financial implications........

© Inc42