Bengaluru-based Razorpay has officially launched its proprietary AI model Vulcan, built on a foundation trained across four billion transactions and 3 trillion data points. According to Business Standard, the model represents a significant advancement in India's digital payments ecosystem, with the architecture and training data belonging exclusively to the fintech firm. The model processes approximately 3,000 signals per transaction and analyzes payment flows across merchants, banks, instruments and gateways, offering a comprehensive approach to payment processing efficiency.
Early testing results across 1.5 million transactions and more than 51,000 businesses demonstrated substantial improvements in payment processing efficiency. As reported by Razorpay, the model achieved an 8-10% improvement in payment success rates, with the company noting that its study across 1.5 million shoppers found the same payment friction - failed transactions, drop-offs, delays - surfacing identically from metro high streets to small-town markets. The model delivered 40% more shoppers spotting their preferred UPI app on checkout, helping to complete 1-2 lakh more purchases each month. Additionally, the company reported 8x more international card fraud detected and stopped and 5x more fraudulent or disputed transactions identified, without increasing the number of alerts.
According to the latest company data, Razorpay processes $180+ billion in annualized transactions, powering millions of businesses across India, Singapore and Malaysia. The platform serves leading businesses including Airbnb, Facebook, WhatsApp, Airtel, CRED, BookmyShow, Zomato, Swiggy, Lenskart, Mirae Asset Capital markets, Indian Oil, National Pension Scheme and over 100 of India's unicorns. The company has raised over $740 million from global investors including GIC, Peak XV Partners, Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital, Matrix Partners, MasterCard, and Salesforce Ventures.
As part of its comprehensive payment solutions, Razorpay offers an International Payment Gateway that accepts client payments in 130+ currencies by card with real-time currency conversion and competitive forex rates that reduce spread leakage. The platform features Smart Collect which creates virtual accounts per client or invoice for automatic matching, and RazorpayX business banking provides a unified dashboard for receipts, payouts, and vendor payments. This capability is particularly valuable for IT and services firms managing many client payments per month, offering real-time notifications and automated reconciliation for recurring receipts. The gateway supports card payments for export receipts at up to 3% + GST transaction fee and provides real-time currency conversion at competitive forex rates to help reduce spread-related leakage.
As part of its AI-native approach, Razorpay has introduced the role of Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), designed to own one merchant's technical destiny and build AI-native agentic payments solutions. The role requires SDE2+ level experience (4+ years for senior) with demonstrated end-to-end ownership, fluency with AI coding tools, and comfort with payments flows. According to the company, FDEs will be the most AI-leveraged engineers in the company and will have senior leadership level visibility from day one at both Razorpay and the merchant level. The role involves taking vague business asks and turning them into concrete technical plans, then building and shipping solutions using both Razorpay's platform and internal AI agents to move faster than traditional teams.
As reported by The Hindu BusinessLine, Razorpay plans to eventually use the AI foundation model across authentication, routing, fraud and lending applications. The company views this as part of a broader strategy to combine AI with financial services for businesses. Additionally, Mathur confirmed that the company continues with its IPO process through the confidential route, stating it remains on track and in the confidential phase. The company's culture emphasizes "T-shaped" profiles with deep engineering and broad execution capabilities, hiring for attitude and hustle over degrees.
