SBI-backed fintech Cashfree Payments is planning to deepen its cross-border business with new offerings including overseas investment and travel payments as it seeks to tap rising demand for international transactions. According to CEO Akash Sinha, the company will begin pilots this year for these services, expanding beyond its current cross-border e-commerce payments. As reported by Reuters, Sinha emphasized that cross-border is an exciting space with a growing market, though the challenges lie in building compliant products and cracking the market effectively. "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," Sinha said, attributing the opportunity to India's increasing integration with the global economy through trade agreements.
Cashfree expects its cross-border business to contribute 25% of revenue within three to four years, up from the current 10% contribution. The company reported revenue of nearly ₹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. The company currently holds a cross-border payments aggregator licence from India's financial regulator, positioning it well for the planned expansion into overseas investment, travel and business-to-business payment services.
Despite 926,741 NRI accounts being opened by Indian stock brokers as of May, up from 511,443 accounts three years ago, investments by Non-Resident Indians have slowed significantly. According to industry data from CDSL and NSDL, the combined value in NRI demat accounts stood at ₹6 lakh crore as of May, showing a 6% increase to ₹6 lakh crore from ₹5.7 lakh crore in the previous year. This represents a significant deceleration from the 12% growth recorded in the preceding year and a sharp decline from the 48% surge recorded in the year to May 2024. Industry insiders attribute this slowdown primarily to stringent KYC regulations and cumbersome compliance requirements, despite some digitisation efforts.
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. According to Sinha, the company aims to build payment infrastructure that makes cross-border transactions smoother, cheaper and operationally hassle-free for consumers and businesses. Recent regulatory relaxations, particularly e-notarisation enabled by SEBI registered KYC Registration Agencies (KRAs) around September-October last year, have helped reduce KYC processing time from 45-50 days to less than seven days in over 50 countries, including the USA, UK and UAE. Companies like Rupeeflo are processing around 3,000 accounts monthly with 60-70% quarterly growth, demonstrating the market's potential once regulatory barriers are addressed.
