Razorpay secures SEBI nod for proposed IPO

Fintech major Razorpay, backed by major investors including Peak XV Partners and Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC, has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for its proposed initial public offering (IPO), the Economic Times reported citing unidentified people.

The Bengaluru-based company, which had confidentially submitted its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) to the market regulator in June 2026, is looking to list on the bourses in the first quarter of next year, the report said. However, the listing may get delayed due to volatile market conditions, it added.

Another fintech major PhonePe, which is backed by Walmart, in March this year paused its listing plans citing geopolitical turmoil even as its high valuation concerns remained. 

In The Head and Tale's Money & Machines newsletter in June, we had reported that Razorpay is looking to raise around $600 million at a valuation of $5-6 billion. Even though that would represent a step down from the valuation achieved during the private market boom, it was still an ambitious ask in the current environment, we had said.

Razorpay was last valued at $7.5 billion in 2021 after securing $375 million in a funding round.

In our May Money & Machines edition we had also noted how Razorpay has also been increasing efforts to position itself as an AI-first company ahead of its IPO. The strategy is understandable as AI is a far more exciting story than payment aggregation…and investors want growth narratives and AI currently provides one.

But the challenge is that Razorpay is not the only company pushing the AI-fication narrative. Other fintech firms including Pine Labs and Paytm, too, has been talking aggressively about AI and embedding it across its products and operations.

Razorpay's road to its proposed IPO has been going on for a while. In April 2025, it converted into a public limited company. It subsequently completed its reverse flip, shifting its legal domicile from the US to India. The transition reportedly involved a tax payment of around $150 million.

Founded in 2014 by Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar, Razorpay started as a payment gateway provider and has since expanded its offerings across business banking, merchant payments and lending.

Earlier this month, the company secured the final Payment Service Provider (PSP) licence from the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA). The approval will enable Razorpay to provide payment services to businesses operating within the International Financial Services Centre at GIFT City, Gujarat.

The successful listing of Razorpay will see it join other venture capital backed fintech companies such as Paytm, Pine Labs and Groww that entered the public markets since 2021.