The rise of open banking and payment services, such as India’s UPI and Singapore’s PayNow, means lower costs for doing business as well as new payment options for hundreds of millions of customers in emerging markets who don’t have a credit card. Tazapay was created as a full-stack service for cross-border merchants, combining both card and real-time payment methods, so they only need to use one payment platform.
The Singapore-based fintech, which enables cross-border payments in more than 170 markets, today announced that it has secured $16.9 million in Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia. Other participants include EscapeVelocity, PayPal Alumni Fund and angel investor Gokul Rajaram. Existing investors Foundation, Jan Capital, RTP Global and Saison Capital also returned for the round.
Tazapay CEO and founder Rahul Shinhal told TechCrush that he has spent most of his career in payments. He started as a product manager for the e-commerce vertical at ICICI Bank of India before moving on to positions at NETS, PayPal and Stripe. “In my 25 years of working, I’ve seen how complex cross-border payments can be, including navigating regulations in multiple jurisdictions and offering multiple currencies to lower costs and shorten settlement times,” he said.
Tazapay was created to solve these problems. Its API covers more than 170 markets for card payments and 85 markets for domestic payments, meaning its customers can accept payments in different countries without setting up local entities. According to Shinhal, the service supports a variety of customers, including B2B operations, e-commerce platforms that sell directly to consumers, and B2B2C.
Some of the startup’s clients include B2B marketplace Indiamart, which has more than 7.4 million sellers and 165 million buyers on its platform; live-learning platform BrightCHAMPS; Used Trucks Marketplace WTX; travel platform Rezlive; and employee engagement SaaS platform Advantage Club. It has also partnered with UK-based International Bank Standard Chartered to provide digital escrow services.
The funds will be used to expand Tazapine’s business in Asia and expand in regions such as the Middle East and Europe. The startup plans to apply for payment licenses and add more local payment methods. These include cross-border e-commerce, edtech, SaaS and travel.
In a statement about the funding, Akash Kapur, vice president of Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia, said: “Buyers increasingly prefer to use real-time payments over traditional networks and businesses want to expand globally without going through the hassle of local setup. The Tazapai team has unique insights and experience in harnessing this tailwind, and Sequoia Capital is excited to partner with them as Southeast Asia doubles down on the opportunity.
