Razorpay enters overseas markets with payment gateway services in Malaysia

Curlec by Razorpay PG Launch_(L-R) Zac Liew, Steve Kucia, Curlec and Shashank Kumar, Razorpay

Fintech unicorn Razorpay on Wednesday announced the launch of its first international payment gateway services for the Malaysian market through Curlec, a company it had acquired in 2022.

The Curlec Payment Gateway will serve more than 5,000 businesses with a target of RM 10 billion (around $2 billion) in annualised gross transaction value (GTV) by 2025, the company said in a statement.

In February of 2022, Razorpay had acquired Kuala Lumpur-based fintech firm Curlec in its first international purchase, kicking off its global expansion plans. Razorpay had acquired a majority stake in Curlec at a valuation of $20 million and the balance stake acquisition was to be completed in 2023.

Curlec was founded in 2017 by Zac Liew and Steve Kucia and, like Razorpay, it is a business-to-business payment solutions provider. The company offers recurring and subscription-based payment collection for businesses, besides billing, payouts, and other payment solutions.

"We firmly believe that our extensive experience in operating within the diverse and dynamic market of India has prepared us to tackle different challenges and solve payment problems on a global scale. And so today, we are really excited to announce our first international payment gateway in Malaysia," said Razorpay India Co-founder and Managing Director Shashank Kumar.

Founded in 2014 by IIT Roorkee alumni Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur, Razorpay provides technology payment solutions to enterprises over 10 million businesses.

The firm is backed by investors such as Y-Combinator, Lone Pine Capital, Alkeon Capital, TCV, GIC, Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital India, Ribbit Capital, Matrix Partners, Salesforce Ventures and MasterCard, who have invested a total of USD 741.5 million through Series A to F in funding.

In 2021, Razorpay raised its second major round of funding at $375 million round in its Series F fundraise, co-led Lone Pine Capital, Alkeon Capital and TCV.

One of the fund utilisations planned during the fundraise was to enter the international markets.

"This launch will pave the way for Razorpay to further penetrate into international waters and make its capabilities available in emerging markets, while in parallel it continues to build and strengthen the central nervous system for Digital India," Kumar said.