Salesforce Ventures makes strategic investment in Razorpay

By Ranjani Raghavan

  • 21 Sep 2021
Credit: Reuters

Salesforce Ventures, the investment arm of American customer relationship management giant Salesforce.com Inc, has invested in unicorn Razorpay to expand the latter’s business-banking platform, the firms announced on Tuesday.  

The companies did not disclose the size of the investment. 

The investment was made at more than $3 billion (Rs 22,088 crore) valuation, with the view of using Salesforce's network to expand further into Southeast Asia, a person familiar with the deal said.

The fund infusion will accelerate growth, help drive adoption and financial growth “for underserved small businesses in the next 12 months”,  a statement said.  

The investment will help expand and integrate Razorpay’s payments and banking platforms, said chief executive and co-founder Harshil Mathur

“We also hope to expand, build new products and deliver this experience to businesses in Southeast Asian countries too,” Mathur added.  

Razorpay last raised Series E funding of $160 million in April 2021 when it was valued at $3 billion. The round was led by Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and joined by existing investors Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital and Matrix Partners.  

“The journey towards a 'less-cash' economy has been accelerated with the pandemic. Rapid growth in digital payments over the last year has opened doors for technology innovation and Razorpay has been emerging as the company of choice for a lot of e-commerce businesses,” Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairperson and CEO of Salesforce India, said.  

Salesforce Ventures has made several such investments in enterprise software in India.  

In August, it led a $6.7 million (about Rs 50 crore) Series A funding round in Hashnode, a platform for software development, engineering and technology content. Earlier in January, Salesforce Ventures made a $15 million investment in Hyderabad-based HR-tech platform Darwinbox.    

Razorpay helps enterprises with their financial infrastructure by providing payment and business-banking solutions to manage their money flow.  

In the last six months, Razorpay said it has grown 40-45% month-on-month. It has achieved $50 billion total payment volume.  

RazorpayX, the startup's business-banking platform, serves over 15,000 Indian businesses. 

The company’s clients include Facebook, Cred, Ola,  Amazon, Tata Technologies, Zomato, Amul, Swiggy, and ICICI Prudential, it said.