• Cashfree Payments to work jointly with the Telr team to continue providing innovative payment and API banking solutions in the MENA region
  • Cashfree Payments and Telr to develop a unified cross-border payments platform using a single integration, thereby helping Indian merchants accept payments from MENA region and vice-versa

Bengaluru/Dubai : Leading payments and API banking solutions company, Cashfree Payments (Cashfree) announced an equity investment of $15 million in Telr, a leading Payment Service Provider (PSP) in UAE and Saudi Arabia. With this investment, Cashfree becomes one of the largest shareholders in the company.

Cashfree has already established itself as one of the leaders in the payment solutions space in India, with successful operationalization and scale-ups of industry-first solutions. Moreover, this strategic investment in Telr, will enable the company to launch its distinctive offerings in the MENA region utilizing Telr’s strong presence and payment infrastructure. In addition, Cashfree and Telr aim to develop a unified cross-border payments platform that would help Indian merchants accept payments from customers in the MENA region and vice-versa, via a single integration.

Telr, the UAE based award-winning payment gateway solutions provider, offers a unique platform that enables handling payments in over 120 currencies and 30 languages with the highest level of security. Through a single integration, Telr grants access to every payment method it offers, including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, UnionPay, Apple Pay, PayPal, SADAD, Mada and STCPay.

With its one-stop mindset, Telr extended its services even further, offering a complete solution for the ecommerce world, covering a wide range of financial and business services including, social commerce, QR Codes, digital invoicing, Telr Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) in collaboration with Tabby, Telr Finance in collaboration with LNNDO, a merchant financing program, and Telr Shops the easy-to-use tool for creating an online store in minutes.

The investment is highly significant for Cashfree as the MENA region offers a large, attractive and growing online market, with payments representing the highly developed sub-sector within the region’s fintech space. The MENA region is witnessing a continuous transition towards cashless transactions, with traditional brick-and- mortar businesses moving towards expanding online offerings. The e-commerce businesses are also witnessing a drastic shift from high street to online shopping and this trend is expected to grow even more.

Akash Sinha, CEO and Co-Founder, Cashfree Payments said, "We are elated the strategic investment in Telr, which aligns well with our aspiration to be the leader in the rapidly evolving digital payments space in the MENA region and overall global expansion goals. Telr’s trusted presence and significant operations in the MENA region provides us an exciting opportunity. We are grateful to our key institutional investor Apis for helping us source and execute this strategic investment. We look forward to nurturing our partnership with Telr by leveraging our learnings and experience from the Indian market and enhancing our reach in the MEAN region by introducing novel offerings.”

Khalil Alami, CEO and Founder, Telr said, “We are excited about this new investment into Telr. Joining forces with Cashfree Payments will further enable us to continue on our innovation and growth journey. Our offerings and partnerships aim to assist in reaching an integrated e-commerce ecosystem supporting the UAE in its transition into a cashless economy; and contributing to the KSA vision 2030. In short, this combined effort will translate into greater benefits for our customers and the markets we operate in.” 

Khaldoon Tabaza, Founder and Managing Director of investment, iMENA said,”We invested in Telr and saw a natural winner and now with the Cashfree Payments partnership, a new payments super-hero is born to conquer new horizons.” 

Raef Elhassan, Co-Founder, Codify said: “We are thrilled to have Cashfree Payments as our new partner in Telr. This partnership will enable Telr to enhance their offerings and provide Cashfree access to opportunities in new markets.”

With over 50% market share among payment processors, Cashfree today leads the way in bulk disbursals in India with Cashfree Payouts. Recently, India’s largest lender, SBI invested in Cashfree underscoring the company’s role in building a robust payments ecosystem. Cashfree works closely with all leading banks to build the core payments and banking infrastructure that powers the company’s products and is also integrated with major platforms such as Shopify, Wix, Paypal, Amazon Pay, Paytm and Google Pay. Apart from India, Cashfree products are used in eight other countries including the USA, Canada and UAE.

-Ends- 

About Cashfree Payments: 

Cashfree Payments is a leading payment and API banking solutions company. It provides full-stack payments solutions enabling businesses in India to collect payments and make payouts via all available methods with simple integration. Cashfree Payments’ offerings include an advanced and easy way to integrate payment gateway, a split payment solution for marketplaces, bank account verification API and Auto Collect -- a virtual account solution to match inbound payments to customers. Founded by IIIT Hyderabad alumnus Akash Sinha and IIT Kharagpur graduate Reeju Datta, www.cashfree.com is among the leading payment service providers in India processing transactions worth USD 20 Billion annually. It has leveraged technology to lead payment disbursals in India with more than 50% market share among payment processors. Cashfree Payments enables more than 1,00,000 businesses with payment collections, vendor payouts, wage payouts, bulk refunds, expense reimbursements, loyalty and rewards. Apart from India, Cashfree Payments products are used in eight other countries including the USA, Canada and UAE. Cashfree Payments is backed by Silicon Valley investor Y Combinator, Apis Partners, State Bank of India (SBI) and was incubated by PayPal.

About Telr 

Established in 2014, Telr is an award-winning, Dubai-based start-up offering payment gateway solutions for SME’s, government bodies and large corporates. Its wholly owned, unique platform enables it to handle complex or unique payment methods or integrations. TELR was awarded with the prestigious Startup of the Year award in 2014. In 2015 Telr also won Best Payment Product in the Middle East award, whilst in 2017 it was awarded Innovative Vendor – Fintech at the 2017 GEC Awards in Dubai. With a fast-growing presence in the UAE, Saudi Arabia. TELR is building a wider regional presence in the MENA Region. TELR enables businesses to transact in over 120 currencies with payment platform capabilities in 30 languages and it provides customers with a range of financial and business services that include social commerce, QR Codes, anti-fraud protection, Shopping Cart Integrations, and digital invoicing. TELR is the first PCI DSS Level 1 certified company in MENA (payment security standards council). www.telr.com 

About Apis Partners

The Apis Group (“Apis”) is an ESGI-native global private equity and venture asset manager that supports growth stage financial services and financial infrastructure businesses by providing them with catalytic growth equity capital. Collectively Apis, through its team of approximately 30 professionals with deep industry expertise, manages or advises on total committed capital from investors (including drawn and invested capital) of US$1.2 billion.

Including its headquarters in London, Apis has representation in seven countries across Europe, North, East and West Africa and South and Southeast Asia. Apis is highly conscious of the developmental impact that the provision of growth capital for financial services and financial infrastructure businesses in growth markets can achieve, and as such, financial inclusion is a core tenet of Apis’ approach and investment mandate. Apis became a signatory to the United Nations backed Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) upon inception of the firm in 2014. www.apis.pe 

Media Contacts:
Swagata Gupta I swagata.gupta@cashfree.com
Sinoj Sadanandan | sinoj.sadanandan@cashfree.com
Niharika Saluja | niharika.saluja@adfactorspr.com
Zena Asfour      | Zena.asfour@telr.com
Stephanie Mullard | stephanie.mullard@apis.pe

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