India’s Cashfree introduces ‘Global Payouts’ for international businesses

By Edil Corneille

Payments and banking technology company, Cashfree, has launched its Global Payouts solution for instant cross border payments that can be availed by international businesses to pay their sellers, service providers or freelancers in India. This solution allows businesses to make instant transfers directly to local bank accounts of recipients in Indian Rupees (INR) instead of the usual transaction time of two to three days with traditional cross border money transfer methods like wire transfers and wallet to wallet transfers.

In November, the Bengaluru-based FinTech received USD 35.3 million (approximately INR 2.6 billion) as part of its Series B raise. The investment was led by growth stage financial services investor, Apis Growth Fund II, with participation from existing investor Y Combinator.

The launch of Global Payouts enables Cashfree to offer businesses such as FinTechs, e-commerce marketplaces, logistics platforms, remote staffing platforms, etc., based outside India, an instant, simple, and cost-efficient rails for bulk cross border money transfers to India. International businesses can use Cashfree’s solution without having to set up a place of business in India. While businesses can send payments in 17 currencies, the solution also helps the recipient partners and sellers obtain the necessary certificates for regulatory filing.

Akash Sinha, CEO and Co-Founder, Cashfree apprised, “As India is the second largest market for cross border commerce, we realised the need for a fast, simple and cost-effective way to make cross border payouts to India. With Global Payouts, Cashfree opens the door for international businesses to automate seamless cross border payments to India. We have been piloting the feature with a set of our global users and are excited to make the feature available to all businesses looking to make payouts to India.”

Cashfree has been working with global businesses including Shell, Tencent, and HDFC Ergo with its collection and disbursal solutions for payments to their operations in India. In the first phase of Global Payouts, Cashfree is targeting businesses across geographies including US, LATAM, Middle East, APAC and Africa.