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Cashfree’s new $53mn funding cements what is my favourite Indian fintech story of all ❤️❤️ I’ve been following the business for about 4yrs now. Thus, with its new funding in the news, I thought this is a great time to share all I know about this Made in India for the World startup story, which I wish more people knew and tracked. So, as Samay Raina would put it - Let’s Goooo! .. Akash & Reeju started Cashfree Payments in 2015 to solve cash-on delivery for India’s rising e-commerce market. -> The next year, they launched its payments gateway, which helped bring in profitability within 2yrs - a status it maintained -> That disciplined but sky-rocketing growth brought Y-Combinator on its side another 2yrs down And this was when India’s largest bank of all, SBI, spotted the company in 2021 and wrote a big cheque at a $200mn valuation. .. This was very special. The king of India’s financial services industry had not invested in other major fintech. -> Now, with money & SBI on its side, company went all out -> This is why, in Dec 2021, it sponsored the superhit season of Shark Tank India, closing the financial year at ~Rs 230cr topline -> It helped so well with visibility and trust the partnership was renewed, helping drive another 54% growth in FY22 And then it grew by another 75% in FY23 to hit >Rs 600cr! .. But, towards the end of FY23, RBI suddenly fired a bazooka, banning new merchant onboarding. That’s when the company made two big decisions. 1> To use the period till ban was lifted to build a host of more new products and upsell those to the existing clients 2> To go global and diversify market concentration risks .. This is when CashFree launched a big line of new products: -> Instant Refunds (used by Meesho) -> Bulk Payments (used by Swiggy to transfer money to delivery folks) -> UniFi (helps businesses handle finances across banks) -> SoftPOS (Turned Android phones into POS devices) -> And many more such new products like RiskShield, FlowWise and many more. A year later, as RBI lifted the ban, it was a dam-break - opening doors to a crazy lot of growth as it had so many new products to sell to a massive market. And growth followed. .. And the fresh $53mn funding from South Korea’s Krafton and the UK’s Apis Partners, at a $700mn valuation is an outcome of that. It will be used for 3 things. -> Growth in the crowded Indian market -> Deeper play in Middle East, US & Canada -> Enter over 2 dozen more countries over the next 2yrs Thus, I find it to be a beautiful Made in India for the world kind of massive fintech play. And, am super bullish. ..