Mastercard, Razorpay Team To Advance SMB Digital Payments

Mastercard is partnering with the Indian FinTech Razorpay to advance digital payments for small and midsized businesses (SMBs), Mastercard said in a press release on Tuesday (Feb. 16).

The tie-up will enable Indian startups and SMBs to fold technology into their operations and accelerate digitalization while also maintaining business continuity and preparing for alternatives to cash payments. 

Before the pandemic took hold, Mastercard said some 90 percent of India’s retail payments were conducted in cash.

“We’re going through one of the biggest transformations in Indian financial history. The FinTech revolution that will significantly alter the payment and banking experience of consumers and businesses now and in the years to come,” Amitabh Tewary, chief innovation officer at Razorpay, said in the release. 

“New businesses are evolving every day with different payment and banking needs and catering to a different set of consumers and markets,” he added.

One of the goals of the partnership is intended to boost digital adoption in Tier II and Tier III cities — Ahmadabad, Kanpur, Chandigarh, Patna, Dehradun, Pondicherry, Pune Madurai, Baroda, Nashik and Trichy. Tewary said that technology will help SMBs better develop resiliency.

“One of the initiatives that we will be working on jointly is to make recurring payments more accessible to businesses and consumers by creating seamless onboarding solutions for bill payments, digital content platforms and other subscription services,” he said.

Mastercard said it is working to advance the acceptance of digital payments in India to help merchants and payment aggregators grow their businesses.

“Mastercard is excited to extend its partnership with Razorpay, India’s youngest unicorn, on a strategic level,” said Rajeev Kumar K, senior vice president of market development for South Asia at Mastercard. 

“Mastercard aims to make merchants across India digitally equipped and welcomes the fresh thoughts and technology that Razorpay will bring to help achieve this goal. Mastercard is committed to developing safe, secure and more convenient ways to make payments with its technology and expertise and is confident this partnership will deliver that and more,” he said.

Razorpay recently launched new business-to-business tools in multiple languages to connect customers with third-party companies. The startup will also offer SMBs a health insurance solution.