Razorpay enters consumer UPI space, leads $30 million investment in payments platform POP

This move follows Razorpay’s earlier acquisition of PoshVine, strengthening its loyalty and rewards capabilities under Razorpay Engage.

Fintech unicorn Razorpay has invested around $30 million in consumer payments platform POP, marking a strategic push to tap into India’s rapidly expanding consumer UPI market.

The new funding will be used to strengthen POP’s product offerings, expand its merchant partnerships in the direct-to-consumer (D2C) and lifestyle categories, and enhance consumer rewards through its POPcoins program.

"The investment aligns with the company’s focus on helping D2C merchants drive customer loyalty. POP bridges a critical gap by combining instant rewards, seamless payments, and brand discovery in a single platform,” said Razorpay Co-founder and CEO Harshil Mathur in a media statement on June 17.

Launched in June 2024, POP operates a unified payments interface (UPI) app focused on a rewards-driven model. The platform integrates payments, commerce, and credit offerings, allowing users to earn POPcoins, a multi-brand, brand-funded rewards currency, on every transaction.

The firm said that POPcoins can be redeemed for discounts across a growing network of merchant partners.

Within its first year, POP has scaled to over six lakh daily UPI transactions and reached more than one million unique monthly active users. The company has also fulfilled over two lakh monthly commerce shipments and issued more than 40,000 RuPay credit cards in partnership with Yes Bank.

“India doesn't need another cashback-only app. With Razorpay’s support, we aim to build a loyalty-first payments ecosystem that helps businesses scale with purpose and impact," POP Founder Bhargav Errangi said.

As per the NPCI database, POP is currently the 21st largest UPI player in the country, processing 13.6 million transactions in May 2025, with a total transaction value exceeding Rs 500 crore.

This move follows Razorpay’s earlier acquisition of PoshVine, strengthening its loyalty and rewards capabilities under Razorpay Engage.

India’s UPI market continues to be dominated by PhonePe and Google Pay, which together account for over 80% of UPI transaction volumes. Other players like Paytm and Amazon Pay hold smaller shares of the market.

New players are steadily entering the space to carve out differentiated niches.

Just last month, fintech startup Jar announced its entry into UPI Third-Party Application Provider (TPAP) services, partnering with BharatPe as the Technology Service Provider (TSP) and Unity Small Finance Bank as the Payment Service Provider (PSP), indicating growing competition in the consumer UPI landscape.

This also comes at a time when there is an ongoing debate on MDR or Merchant Discount Rate.

Last week, the Union finance ministry dismissed reports of government planning to levy merchant discount rate (MDR) on large-ticket UPI transactions.

Earlier this year, the Payment Council of India had urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government to reconsider Zero MDR policy for UPI transactions.

As on June 1, UPI had recorded 644 million transactions and 650 million the next day, overtaking global payments giant Visa, which processed an average of 639 million daily transactions during FY24.