Cashfree Celebrates 10 Years With A Bold Bet On Startup-Friendly Payment Rates

As India’s digital economy expands, payment gateways have become more than transaction pipes — they are critical infrastructure powering startups and small businesses. For early stage founders operating on razor-thin margins, every percentage point saved on transaction costs can determine whether to hire, market, or simply extend runway.

Marking a decade of building value for businesses, Cashfree Payments is now stepping up to solve one of the ecosystem’s most persistent challenges: high payment fees. For India’s 70 Mn+ MSMEs and D2C brands, where cashflow discipline often decides survival, even a 0.5–1% reduction in fees can be the difference between stagnation and growth.

As part of its tenth anniversary, the fintech startup is rolling out a special initiative for online merchants across India. Businesses that get onboarded on Cashfree Payments by 31st December 2025 will be able to access its payment gateway solutions at 1.6%, valid for the next one full year. By lowering payment costs, the initiative aims to directly improve margins for startups, D2C brands, and MSMEs, enabling them to grow faster in India’s booming digital economy. Launched ahead of the festive season, when online demand typically peaks, the campaign comes as a timely opportunity for businesses to boost sales.

“Every founder knows the early years demand more than ideas. They demand resilience, constant pivots, and above all, escape velocity: that crucial push that helps ideas break free from gravity. Having walked that path, we feel a deep connection with the founders and startups writing their own stories. As Cashfree turns 10 this month, one truth stands out: the right thrust at the right time can define everything. That’s why this milestone isn’t just ours; it belongs to every builder creating something new. To celebrate, we’re giving new sign-ups at Cashfree that extra thrust with India’s best payment gateway pricing for 12 months, so they have the space to test, grow, and scale fearlessly, while we take care of their payment needs,” said Akash Sinha, cofounder and CEO of Cashfree Payments.

Ten Years Of Simplifying Payments

This journey of Cashfree traces back to 2015, when cofounders, Akash Sinha and Reeju Datta, met over coffee in Bengaluru. What began as a discussion about delayed cash-on-delivery settlements for late-night restaurant orders soon turned into late-night coding sprints, endless trials, and a conviction that payments should never come in the way of growth. That conviction gave birth to Cashfree Payments.

10 years on, Cashfree has grown into a full-stack payments platform, moving more than $80 Bn payment volumes annually, while serving 800,000 businesses of all sizes. It recently secured $53 Mn (approximately INR 450 Cr) in its series C funding round, led by South Korean gaming giant, KRAFTON and Apis Partners.

On the financial front, the fintech startup reported a 4.19% increase in operating revenue to INR 639.3 Cr in FY24, up from INR 613.6 crore in FY23.

Operating in a digital payments market projected to grow from $64.7 Bn in 2025 to $162.1 Bn by 2031 (16.4% CAGR), Cashfree faces an environment of rapid expansion but persistent challenges. High fees, delayed settlements, cyber threats, and fragmented compliance frameworks continue to strain margins for startups and small merchants.

Amid this complex terrain, Cashfree has spent a decade working at removing these bottlenecks. As Reeju Datta, cofounder, Cashfree Payments puts it, “Trust is the real product.” In an industry where reliability often outweighs speed, earning a founder’s confidence has meant putting compliance at the centre, not as a checkbox but as a strategic moat. This customer-centric and compliance-first approach has enabled the company to evolve from a simple payments provider to what it now calls a “payments-plus-plus” platform.

Cashfree was among the first non-bank entities to operationalise the PA-CB (Payment Aggregator-Cross Border) license granted by the Reserve Bank of India, which enabled the company to serve both import and export transactions.

In the last few years, it has also doubled down on building identity verification and fraud prevention solutions with its Secure ID and Riskshield stacks. Leveraging its AI-capabilities, the company has introduced a slew of industry-first solutions like Cashien AI, India’s first AI-powered developer assistant, and Remote MCP, one of India’s first no-code, chat-based payment tools.

Navigating What’s Next

Cashfree’s mission has been to make payments frictionless, allowing businesses to focus squarely on growth. The reduced rates naturally extend that purpose, serving as a tangible way to support the ecosystem that has evolved alongside the company. “It reflects our long-term strategy: build with trust, simplify payments and empower Indian entrepreneurs to scale and grow on a global stage,” shared Sinha.

The next decade will involve reimagining the foundational elements of digital payments. Cashfree aims to move beyond addressing current challenges towards constructing infrastructure that anticipates future opportunities, including cross-border commerce, identity and risk management and AI-driven automation. The focus remains on making payments and compliance so seamless that they blend into the background, enabling businesses to scale without friction.

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