Razorpay Expands Southeast Asian Footprint with Singapore Launch

Fintech player Razorpay has officially opened in Singapore, marking its second Southeast Asian market after Malaysia. The payment solutions provider is continuing its regional expansion strategy.

The company's Singapore launch follows what it calls strong results in Malaysia, where local merchants have reportedly benefited from quicker settlements and cut-rate transaction fees. Razorpay plans to work with Singapore's banks, financial bodies, and regulators to smooth its entry into the city-state's tightly controlled financial ecosystem.

Singapore businesses can now access Razorpay's toolkit, which includes payment gateway services, cross-border payment options, and financial analytics. To beef up its regional presence, the firm will also roll out its international payment platform, Curlec, in Singapore.

Razorpay acquired Malaysia-based Curlec and launched operations there in July 2023. The company claims Curlec has seen 30% month-on-month growth since then.

The move comes as Razorpay eyes Southeast Asia's booming digital payments market, which is expected to hit $2 trillion in transaction volume by 2030. Singapore leads the pack with a projected 97% digital payment adoption rate, driven by the government's aggressive cashless push. The company expects cashless payments in Singapore to double to $180 billion by 2029, while e-commerce should nearly double to $40 billion within three years.

Razorpay says its new suite of payment tools aims to slash cross-border transaction fees by 30-40% for Singapore businesses, which currently fork out 4-6% per transaction. The company points to fractured payment systems that jack up fees and block real-time payments across Asian markets as key hurdles for small businesses trying to expand.

The Singapore platform will handle real-time, multi-currency transactions to help businesses scale internationally.

Founded in 2014 by Kumar and Harshil Mathur, the India-born but US-incorporated Razorpay is also planning to flip back to Indian incorporation, reportedly eyeing a future stock market listing.