Razorpay's Ascent: From 2015 Pitch Deck Rejections to Fintech Giant
Manpreet Singh Duggal
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7-22Mia: You know that feeling when you're trying to buy something online, you enter all your card details, hit 'pay,' and the little wheel just spins and spins... and then fails? It’s the worst.
Mars: Oh, absolutely. It's pure digital frustration. But imagine if that wasn't just an occasional annoyance, but the default experience for an entire country's e-commerce. That's exactly the problem Razorpay saw in India back in 2015.
Mia: Right, the founders, Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar, saw that accepting online payments in India was just incredibly painful. We're talking slow, clunky, and with a super high failure rate. It was a world away from how easy it was in the US at the time.
Mars: And that high failure rate was the real killer. It was a massive roadblock for any small business or startup in India trying to get off the ground online.
Mia: So when they went to VCs, you'd think it would be an easy sell, right? But apparently, most of them just saw the payment gateway space as totally commoditized.
Mars: Exactly. The common thinking was, Why on earth do we need another payment gateway? It's a crowded market with tiny margins. But here's the kicker: when they pitched to other founders, the reaction was the complete opposite. Those founders had felt the pain firsthand. That founder-to-founder validation was way more powerful than any VC's skepticism.
Mia: I see. So the pitch deck, even though it was apparently quite simple, must have hit a real nerve with the right people. It really framed the problem in a way that other entrepreneurs immediately got. That seems to have set the stage for everything.
Mars: It's a classic case of solving a problem you deeply understand yourself. They weren't just building a company; they were building a tool they wished they had.
Mia: So, they faced something like 50 rejections from VCs. What was it that kept them going when so many experts were telling them it was a bad idea?
Mars: Well, I think it boils down to a fundamental disconnect. Many VCs, especially those not deep in the weeds of Indian infrastructure, probably saw payments as a solved problem globally. They just didn't grasp the specific, painful nuances of the Indian market.
Mia: So it's that direct feedback from other founders that acted as their North Star. It's amazing how that kind of validation can fuel you, even when the money people are skeptical. It clearly baked this customer-first approach into their DNA from day one.
Mars: Absolutely. And that brings us to the pitch deck itself. The founders have said it was almost embarrassingly simple.
Mia: Yeah, they focused on just the core message: the problem, the solution, the market size. No fancy graphics, not even a slide about the founders themselves, which is pretty unusual.
Mars: I think that's a sign of confidence in the idea itself. They weren't selling their resumes; they were selling a solution to a massive, tangible problem. Substance over style.
Mia: One of the key lines in that deck was, the state of payments in India was like the US 20 years back. That's a pretty bold statement. Why was that comparison so powerful?
Mars: You know, it's a brilliant piece of framing. For any investor, especially in the US, it instantly creates a picture. It says, Look at the massive journey the US took in digital payments. We're at the very beginning of that same journey in India, and here's the opportunity. It made the problem undeniable.
Mia: That makes sense. It's not just data; it's a story. And for one of their key early investors, Vikram from Z47, that story clearly landed.
Mars: It did. His firm basically bet on three things: that solving payment failures was essential for India's e-commerce to grow, that everything was going mobile-first, and that Razorpay's tech-focused approach was the right one.
Mia: The story goes that the investment decision was made over a Skype call, which was super rare back in 2015. What gave them the confidence to move so fast, even without meeting in person?
Mars: It was the founders. They weren't just engineers; they were top engineers who had a profound understanding of the problem they were solving. They had a clear why now and a credible plan. When you see that kind of conviction and clarity, you don't need to be in the same room to know it's a good bet.
Mia: So from that initial focus on payments, they've expanded into a whole suite of products—Razorpay X for payroll, Capital for lending... How did that happen?
Mars: It’s that same DNA we talked about. The founder, Harshil, apparently makes it a point to talk to at least one customer every single week. They just kept listening. They heard businesses say, Okay, you fixed our payments, but now we have this problem with payroll, or Now we need access to credit. Their expansion has been completely pulled by the customer, not pushed by a boardroom.
Mia: That's a powerful way to grow. And now they're taking that model global, starting with Malaysia and Singapore.
Mars: Right. They see the same pattern in Southeast Asia that they saw in India years ago—a market at that critical turning point for digital payments. They're basically running the same playbook.
Mia: And at the same time, they're moving their headquarters back to India to prepare for a local IPO. What does that signal to you?
Mars: It signals that the Indian tech scene has come of age. A decade ago, listing in the US was the ultimate goal. Now, the Indian market is so vibrant and deep that a domestic IPO is the more strategic move. It's a full-circle moment.
Mia: It really is. When you look back, it’s incredible. A simple, problem-focused pitch deck can be more powerful than a glossy one.
Mars: Definitely. And getting that early validation from actual users, not just investors, is priceless when you're starting out. Their product-first mindset was the real differentiator.
Mia: And that obsession with the customer is what allowed them to keep growing organically.
Mars: Exactly. You know, they started by saying India's payment scene was 20 years behind the US. Now, with things like UPI, you could argue India is years ahead. It just shows how quickly a landscape can flip when you solve the right problem. From all those rejections in 2015 to becoming a fintech giant, it's quite an ascent.