By Nikhil Cariappa Bangalore-based payments company CashFree has added Amazon Pay as a payment option for its merchants and vendors. It claims to be the first payment gateway to introduce such an option for its customers. CashFree claims to have 5000 online and offline customers who make and receive payments. CashFree was founded in 2015 by IIIT Hyderabad graduate Akash Sinha and IIT Kharagpur graduate Reeju Datta. CashFree counts Paypal and Y Combinator as its investors. Amazon Pay was launched in 2007 in the US, but received approval by RBI to launch a digital wallet only in 2017, in India. Amazon’s recent moves Amazon India pumped a further Rs 220 crores into Amazon Pay, taking its total investment to Rs 1692 crores. Amazon Pay acquired Tapzo, an all-in-one app which aggregates up to 40 apps in one place. This will enable Amazon users to make transactions across platforms and businesses directly using Amazon Pay as the medium of payment. Amazon India introduced a door-step cash pick up to upload money into the Amazon Pay wallet. CashFree’s metrics 5000 merchants 4 million transactions per month 50% rise in transaction volumes every month (thanks to new product launches) Transaction value expected to touch Rs 2500 crores per month by the end of FY 2019.
