Salesforce Ventures, the venture capital arm of the American customer relationship management firm, has invested an undisclosed amount in Razorpay to expand its business-banking platform, the companies said in a statement on Tuesday.
The deal valued Razorpay at more than $3 billion, a little over the valuation sought by the company in April, said a person seeking anonymity. In April, RazorPay raised a $160 million Series E round at a valuation of more than $3 billion, led by Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC. Existing investors Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital and Matrix Partners also participated in it.
The strategic investment will help Razorpay use Salesforce’s network to expand to Southeast Asia. The fund infusion will help accelerate adoption and financial growth of underserved small businesses in the next 12 months, and in expanding and integrating the payments and banking platforms, Harshil Mathur, chief executive and co-founder, Razorpay, said.
“We will build new products and deliver this experience to businesses in Southeast Asian countries, too,” Mathur said.
Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairperson and chief executive, Salesforce India, said, “The journey towards a less-cash economy has been accelerated with the pandemic. The rapid growth in digital payments over the last year has opened doors for technology innovation and Razorpay emerged as the company of choice for a lot of e-commerce businesses.”
Salesforce has made several investments in the enterprise software space in India. In August, it led a $6.7 million (about ₹50 crore) Series A funding round in Hashnode, a platform for software development, engineering and technology content. In January, Salesforce Ventures invested $15mn in Hyderabad-based HR technology platform Darwinbox, operated by Darwinbox Digital Solutions.
Razorpay offers payment and business banking solutions to help enterprises with their financial infrastructure and money flow.
Source: Mint