Launch · Financial Services

Cashfree navigates licence, eyes ₹1,000 Cr revenue

What they do

Cashfree received a payment aggregator licence from RBI, part of a broader issuance to over 55 firms

The company plans ₹1,000 Cr revenue by FY26, despite a 46-fold net loss jump in FY23

Direct card network integration and SME growth signal a competitive push in a market dominated by a few players

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued payment aggregator (PA) and payment gateway (PG) licences to over 55 companies in the past two years.
Cashfree Payments, a digital payments firm, was among the licence recipients.
The licence allows Cashfree to operate as a payment aggregator, a role that involves processing merchant payments.
Cashfree's CEO and founder, Akash Sinha, said the licence is a floor, not a moat, meaning it is a basic requirement, not a lasting advantage.
The PA market is dominated by 3-4 players holding over 80% market share.
In late 2022 or 2023, RBI asked Cashfree to stop onboarding new customers due to compliance issues.
The freeze on new customer onboarding was lifted in December 2023.
Cashfree claims it will close FY26 with revenue close to ₹1,000 crore, though audited financials are not yet filed.

RBI's crackdown in 2022-23 targeted non-compliant merchant onboarding, leading to rejection of 25 existing PA licence holders and 47 applicants.
Cashfree's net loss widened 46 times to ₹133.1 crore in FY23 from ₹2.9 crore the previous year, reflecting regulatory and compliance costs.
Despite the loss, operating revenue nearly doubled to ₹613.8 crore in FY23, showing strong top-line growth.
The quick commerce boom is driving a new growth phase in the payment aggregator space, benefiting firms like Cashfree.
Cashfree's direct integration with Visa and Mastercard bypasses third-party routing layers, potentially reducing costs and improving margins.

Cashfree Payments provides payment gateway and payment aggregation services to businesses.
Its customers include Eternal, BigBasket, Zepto, OpenAI, and X (formerly Twitter).
Cashfree works directly with card networks Visa and Mastercard without an intermediary.
This direct integration incurs only raw interchange and scheme/assessment fees, with no acquirer markup.
Card networks charge acquiring banks processing fees up to 0.13% of transaction volume.
Cashfree's SME merchant contribution grew over 100% in the last 12 months.
The mid-tier SME segment is a key battleground, with competitors like Razorpay and Billdesk also focusing there.
Cashfree's revenue inched up less than 5% to ₹639 crore in FY24, and net loss grew slightly to ₹136 crore.
In FY25, revenue was around ₹640 crore, with net loss around ₹150 crore.

Cashfree plans to close FY26 with revenue close to ₹1,000 crore.
The company aims to leverage its direct card network integration to reduce costs and improve competitiveness.
Cashfree will continue focusing on the mid-tier SME segment, which is a key growth area.

Product: Digital payment solutions including payment gateway, cross-border payments, payout solutions, and banking APIs.
Customers: Businesses and merchants, including enterprise and SMB customers.
How it makes money: Charges fees on payment processing and related financial infrastructure services.
What sets it apart: Offers a broad payments stack plus cross-border capabilities across many countries.
Operations: Processes payments at scale for merchants across India and international markets.