Juspay closes $50 million funding from WestBridge Capital; becomes first unicorn of 2026 as valuation hits $1.2 billion

Digital payments infrastructure startup Juspay has closed a $50 million funding round from WestBridge Capital, valuing the Bengaluru-based company at about $1.2 billion.

This makes Juspay the first Indian startup to attain unicorn status in 2026.

The transaction includes both primary and secondary components, providing liquidity to early investors and employees through stock sales, according to a statement from the company. The statement, however, did not reveal details of the primary-secondary breakup.


“Our focus over the last decade has been on solving the core complexities of global payments through first-principles engineering and design,” said cofounder Sheetal Lalwani. “This round reflects our growth and provides liquidity opportunities for our early investors and team members.”

Serving large clients

Founded in 2012 by Lalwani and Vimal Kumar, along with Ramanathan RV, who exited in 2019, Juspay provides payment infrastructure and orchestration software to large enterprises and banks. The company said it processes over 300 million transactions daily and handles an annualised total payment volume (TPV) of over $1 trillion.

Juspay’s clients include large tech (Google) and ecommerce companies (Amazon, Flipkart, Swiggy), airlines (Indigo), and financial institutions (HSBC).

The statement noted that Juspay has expanded beyond its original payments orchestration business to offer Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and core banking-linked payment infrastructure, operating as a backend technology provider for banks and large merchants.

In April 2025, Juspay had raised $60 million in a funding round led by Kedaara Capital, with participation from SoftBank and Accel, at a valuation of $900 million.

The company reported a net profit of Rs 62 crore for the fiscal year ended March 2025, marking its first full year of profitability, compared with a net loss of Rs 97 crore in FY24.

PA licence impact

The company received its payment aggregator (PA) licence from the Reserve Bank of India in February 2024, a move that led to tensions within the payments ecosystem. Major payment aggregators accused Juspay of directing transactions preferentially to its own PA service, citing a conflict of interest.

In December 2024, PhonePe asked its merchant clients to stop using Juspay’s services, pushing its own orchestration platform. Razorpay and Cashfree took similar steps in January 2025.

Juspay has also been expanding its presence overseas, with operations across the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Latin America, Europe, the UK and North America.

“Our conviction in them stems from their relentless innovation, evolving from a payment orchestration platform to a full-stack UPI platform, and now to a core payments infrastructure provider for banks,” said Deepak Ramineedi, partner at WestBridge Capital.