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Milestone · Financial Services

Cashfree announces ESOP buyback for 400 employees

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Cashfree Payments logo
Date
Company
Cashfree Payments
What it does
Payments and payouts infrastructure platform
Kind
Milestone
Founded
2015
Sector
Financial Services

What they do

Cashfree Payments builds payment and payout tools for businesses

What happened

It announced an ESOP buyback covering over 400 employees, including 175 former employees; size and valuation not disclosed

Why it matters

This is the third major ESOP buyback in 2026, after Innovaccer and BrowserStack, while annual buyback activity has fallen since 2023

The details

  • Cashfree Payments started an ESOP buyback programme for over 400 employees, including 175 former employees.
  • The buyback amount and valuation were not disclosed.
  • The company has raised $95M in total from investors including Y Combinator, Smilegate Investments, and State Bank of India.
  • Its last funding was a $53M round led by Krafton about a year before this announcement.
  • This is the third major ESOP buyback announced in 2026, after Innovaccer (~$75M) and BrowserStack ($125M).
  • ESOP buyback activity in 2025 was just over $75M, down from $190M in 2024 and $802M in 2023.

About the business

  • Cashfree Payments provides payment and payout infrastructure for businesses.
  • It processes an annual payment volume of over $80B.
  • It serves over 1 million merchants, including startups and large internet companies.
  • Its products include Payment Gateway (180+ payment methods), Subscriptions, Payment Links, Payment Forms, Instant Settlements, International Payment Gateway, RiskShield, SecureID, Mule Sentinel, Agentic Payments (Cashfree Here), Agentic Operations (Cashfree Relay), Payouts, and Cashgram.
  • Industry solutions cover E-Commerce & D2C, BFSI, Education & EdTech, SMB & Startups, and Enterprise.
  • Checkout360 is a one-click checkout for Shopify D2C brands that lifts conversion, flips COD to prepaid, and flags RTO risk.
  • International Payment Gateway accepts payments from 170+ markets in 140+ currencies, settled in INR; foreign businesses can collect via UPI, RuPay, cards with 80%+ success and settle overseas in 100+ currencies at 0% FX, no Indian entity needed.
  • RiskShield provides real-time fraud screening, cutting chargebacks by up to 60%.
  • SecureID does identity verification (KYC, bank accounts, GST, documents, faces) in seconds.
  • Mule Sentinel detects and blocks mule accounts and fraud networks.
  • Cashfree Here enables in-chat payments inside AI chats (ChatGPT, Claude) via MCP Apps standard with Mastercard and Swiggy, India's first.
  • Cashfree Relay uses AI agents for back-office payment operations (reconciliation, refunds, disputes, COD checks).
  • Payouts lets businesses pay anyone 24x7 via bank accounts, UPI IDs, cards, wallets for refunds, vendors, salaries, winnings, incentives.
  • Cashgram sends money with a link, no account details needed.
  • Cross-border payments contribute about 10% of total revenue.
  • Operating revenue for FY25 was Rs 640 crore (vs Rs 643 crore in FY24).
  • Net loss for FY25 was Rs 154 crore, widened 14% from Rs 135 crore in FY24.
  • Founded in 2015.

The deal

Type
ESOP buyback

Founders

  • Akash Sinha, Co-founder
  • Reeju Datta, Co-founder

About Cashfree Payments

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.

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