Y Combinator-backed Cashfree to enable 3 million small merchants on Dukaan’s platform accept e-payments

Dukaan is looking to have 20 million merchants open their digital stores on its platform in the next 12 months.

Technology for MSMEs: US-based startup accelerator Y Combinator-backed online payments gateway Cashfree will help over 3 million micro and small merchants associated with Dukaan, which helps build their e-commerce websites and more, in their online payment collections and disbursals. These merchants will have access to Cashfree’s e-commerce suite that allows businesses to accept customer payments on their website, mobile app, social media channels, or through a payment link. “Our solution allows customers to directly make online payments to the digital shop owners ensuring instant settlements in real-time with better cash flow, cash management, and reduced risk. Secondly, merchants do not require any KYC,” Akash Sinha, CEO and Co-founder, Cashfree told Financial Express Online. Cashfree competes with Paytm, Razorpay, CC Avenue, Bill Desk, Instamojo, etc.

The pandemic has altered the outlook of MSMEs such as grocery stores towards digital solutions including payments as customers have increasingly become wary of using cash. However, the adoption curve with respect to digital solutions has been steep for merchants. “E-payments lowers the need for physical contact, which is essential in the current pandemic world, while further reducing the time spent on a mobile device to make a purchase by the consumer, hence simplifying the e-commerce process for a store owner,” Suumit Shah, Founder and CEO, Dukaan told Financial Express Online. The startup is looking to have 20 million merchants open their digital stores on its platform in the next 12 months.

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India’s payment gateway market is likely to grow to $1.71 billion by 2025 from $446 million in 2017, as per Statista. The growth is being triggered by the rise in e-commerce transactions. According to the Indian Brand Equity Foundation, the Indian e-commerce industry is likely to surpass the US market to become the second-largest e-commerce market in the world by 2034. For the current decade, the e-commerce market is expected to grow to $200 billion by 2026 from $38.5 billion in 2017. Cashfree has so far raised $40.9 million and had last raised $35.3 million in Series B funding in November 2020, as per data from Crunchbase. Apis Partners, Smilegate Investment, others are among its investors.