Razorpay invests $30 million into consumer payments startup Pop

Economic Times

17-06-2025

ETtech (L-R) Harshil Mathur, Shashank Kumar, cofounders, Razorpay
Pop, a consumer payment platform, has raised $30 million from payments solutions company Razorpay. This investment will go towards solving two of India's most pressing challenges in digital commerce: rising customer acquisition costs (CAC) for merchants and the lack of meaningful rewards for consumers.The company operates a rewards-first UPI payments app that merges payments, commerce, and credit into one experience. It has previously raised funding from several marquee investors, including India Quotient, Unilever Ventures, Incubate Fund, and Nuventures."India doesn't need another cashback-only rewards app. What we need is a new rewards economy built on a long-term purpose. Popcoins are designed to build habits, increase retention, and reduce CAC for merchants — all while making payments more rewarding for the end user,' said Bhargav Errangi, Founder of Pop. 'With Razorpay's support, we will double down on our mission to bring a loyalty-first payments ecosystem that will help businesses scale with purpose, speed, and impact.'Pop will use the funding to strengthen product innovation, enhance the value proposition for consumers via Popcoins-led rewards, and build deeper merchant partnerships across D2C and lifestyle categories.
Since launching its UPI platform last June, Pop has scaled to over six lakh daily UPI transactions, crossed one million unique monthly active transactors, fulfilled two lakh monthly commerce shipments and issued 40,000 RuPay credit cards in a co-branded partnership with Yes Bank.
The investment expands Razorpay's footprint beyond payments into the broader ecosystem of loyalty, engagement, and commerce enablement. The company believes that while checkout journeys have been digitized, most merchants still lack easy-to-use tools that incentivize repeat purchases, drive real-time engagement, and convert casual visitors into loyal customers. Pop solves this by building a multi-brand rewards currency in the form of Pop Coins, in the company's view.
'Our investment in Pop is driven by a clear purpose and that is to serve D2C merchants better. In today's crowded D2C space, brands need more than just payment solutions; they need tools to earn trust, drive repeat purchases, and build real loyalty,' said Harshil Mathur, co-founder and CEO of Razorpay. 'Pop bridges that gap by combining instant rewards, seamless payments, and brand discovery in one platform. It's a powerful way for businesses to turn everyday transactions into lasting customer relationships."This investment in Pop complements Razorpay's earlier acquisition of PoshVine, a loyalty and rewards management platform, which laid the foundation for Razorpay Engage, touted as India's 'first full-stack intelligent marketing growth suite'.According to a recent Consumer Spending Report by Upside, over 90% of digital consumers consider rewards and loyalty while making purchase decisions. With India's D2C market expected to surpass $100 billion by 2026, the pressure on brands to create sticky, rewarding customer experiences has never been greater.