Cashfree Payments investments in UAE payment gateway, Telr

By Leandra Monteiro

Payments and API banking solutions company, Cashfree Payments (Cashfree) announced an equity investment of $15 million in Telr, a Payment Service Provider (PSP) in UAE and Saudi Arabia. With this investment, Cashfree becomes one of the largest shareholders in the company.

Cashfree has already established itself as one of the leaders in the payment solutions space in India, with successful operationalization and scale-ups of industry-first solutions. Moreover, this strategic investment in Telr, will enable the company to launch its distinctive offerings in the MENA region utilizing Telr’s presence and payment infrastructure. In addition, Cashfree and Telr aim to develop a unified cross-border payments platform that would help Indian merchants accept payments from customers in the MENA region and vice-versa, via a single integration.

The investment is highly significant for Cashfree as the MENA region offers a large, attractive and growing online market, with payments representing the highly developed sub-sector within the region’s FinTech space. The MENA region is witnessing a continuous transition towards cashless transactions, with traditional brick-and- mortar businesses moving towards expanding online offerings.

Akash Sinha, CEO and Co-Founder, Cashfree Payments said, “We are elated with the strategic investment in Telr, which aligns well with our aspiration to be the leader in the rapidly evolving digital payments space in the MENA region and overall global expansion goals. Telr’s trusted presence and significant operations in the MENA region provides us an exciting opportunity. We are grateful to our key institutional investor Apis for helping us source and execute this strategic investment. We look forward to nurturing our partnership with Telr by leveraging our learnings and experience from the Indian market and enhancing our reach in the MENA region by introducing novel offerings.”

Khalil Alami, CEO and Founder, Telr said, “We are excited about this new investment into Telr. Joining forces with Cashfree Payments will further enable us to continue on our innovation and growth journey. Our offerings and partnerships aim to assist in reaching an integrated e-commerce ecosystem supporting the UAE in its transition into a cashless economy; and contributing to the KSA vision 2030. In short, this combined effort will translate into greater benefits for our customers and the markets we operate in.”