Payment aggregator Razorpay has partnered with two of its backers to launch a venture investment program with an aim to fund early-stage business-to-business (B2B) startups in the country.
The fintech unicorn has teamed up with venture capital firms Peak XV Partners and Lightspeed and plans to invest up to $1 million in B2B startups across fintech, e-commerce, retail, travel, education, healthcare, logistics, hospitality, mobility, and export, it said in a statement.
Through the venture investment program, Razorpay intends to back about 10-15 startups across companies from pre-seed and Series A stages every year, it said in a statement.
“Building a startup, particularly in the B2B space, is a daunting challenge. Having experienced it firsthand and witnessing founders across industries face this daily, we believe the support system must go beyond just capital,” said Harshil Mathur, co-founder and chief executive of Razorpay. “We aim to ease this journey by providing access to the right technology, mentorship, and partnerships to help founders innovate and scale faster.”
Razorypay’s Head of Strategy and Corporate Development, Vishnu Acharya, will lead the program. The investment team will also include Johney Maheshwari as Principal and Satvik Agarwal as Senior Associate, according to the company's website.
The investee companies will get access to Razorpay APIs, customised integration with the company’s tech stack, personalised mentorship from its leadership, and access to the Razorpay Rize community of more than 3,000 founders and businesses, beyond capital. The program aims to identify and back over 50 early-stage founders.
Razorpay, last valued at about $7.5 billion in 2021, offers an omnichannel payments and banking platform for businesses. Apart from Peak XV and Lightspeed, it counts Lone Pine Capital, Alkeon Capital, TCV, GIC, Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital, Matrix Partners, Salesforce Ventures, Y Combinator, and MasterCard, among its investors.