Cashfree Payments bets on cross-border push with travel, investment payments

Fintech firm Cashfree Payments plans to deepen its cross-border business with offerings such as overseas investment and travel payments as it seeks to tap rising demand for international transactions, CEO Akash Sinha said on Monday.

Cashfree, backed by State Bank of India, ‌the country's ⁠largest ⁠lender, currently facilitates cross-border e-commerce payments.

It plans to begin pilots this year ​for overseas investment, travel and business-to-business payment services, expanding beyond online shopping, ​Sinha told Reuters in an interview.


"Cross-border is an exciting space...the market is not a challenge. It's a growing market," Sinha said, ​attributing the opportunity to India's increasing ⁠integration with ‌the global economy through trade agreements.

"It's more about ​how do ​we crack it. Can we build the ⁠right product? Can we make a compliant product? Those ​are the challenges."

Indian payment firms have stepped ​up their focus on cross-border services as outbound travel, overseas education, investments and global trade gather pace.

Unlike domestic payment processing, where intense competition has squeezed pricing, cross-border transactions typically offer better margins because they involve foreign exchange and additional regulatory ‌compliance.

Sinha said Cashfree aims to build payment infrastructure that makes cross-border transactions smoother, cheaper and operationally ​hassle-free for consumers ​and businesses.

Cashfree, which ⁠has a cross-border payments aggregator licence from India's financial regulator, expects the business to contribute 25% of revenue within three to four years, up from 10% currently.

It reported revenue of nearly Rs 1,000 crore ($105.7 million) in financial year 2026.

The firm, founded in 2015, processes transactions worth $80 billion annually for more than 1 million businesses, according to its website.