Razorpay sets up advisory board; ropes in former Dy RBI Guv, industry veterans

Fintech major Razorpay on Tuesday announced setting up an advisory board to build industry-first practices in innovation and corporate governance. The company has onboarded former Deputy RBI Governor NS Vishwanathan and Arijit Basu, the former managing director of State Bank of India as part of the advisory board.

"In light of India’s rapidly evolving financial sector, it is crucial to foster collaboration with innovative fintech companies to drive progress and deliver superior yet compliant services to businesses and consumers. I congratulate Razorpay's Leadership team for thinking of an institutional arrangement like the Advisory Board to foster high-quality governance and compliance culture even as it grows its business," said Vishwanathan.

"This is an important step in promoting a culture of responsible innovation, something imperative for the development of a more sustainable and inclusive financial system for all," he added.

The company has also onboarded retired IAS officers Aruna Sundarajan and KP Krishnan as part of the advisory board. All the members of the Advisory Board will periodically convene to review, analyse and provide recommendations and directions on both strategic and tactical levels, the company said. The Advisory Board will assist Razorpay in developing long-term strategies, anticipating challenges and suggesting mitigation measures.

According to the fintech major, the newly formed advisory board is founded with the singular vision of establishing the highest standards in customer experience, corporate governance and risk & compliance in the Indian fintech industry, for others to follow. The Council will also help contribute to the development of Razorpay’s payment infrastructure and help engage with key institutions and stakeholders.

"India’s fintech ecosystem is at a crucial juncture in its evolution. With India serving as a benchmark for several nations today, it is pertinent that companies like ours are future-ready and agile to adapt to the ever-changing fintech environment…Now in our next phase of growth as India’s leading end-to-end money movement platform for businesses, we have a strong intent to put in place further systems to uphold the highest standards of customer experience and governance," said Harshil Mathur, CEO & Co-Founder at Razorpay.

According to the company, the advisory board will be working in four key areas at Razorpay. This includes accelerating product innovation around customer experience and customer safety, building the best-in-class practices for regulatory & compliance management processes,  working with various stakeholders to enhance risk monitoring and cybercrime prevention, and building new processes around digital information security that will help shape the future of the fintech ecosystem.  

Founded in 2014, Razorpay is the second Indian company to be a part of Silicon Valley’s largest tech accelerator, Y Combinator. It provides technology payment solutions to more than 10 million businesses. It is backed by Marquee investors such as Lone Pine Capital, Alkeon Capital, TCV, GIC, Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital India, Ribbit Capital, Matrix Partners, Salesforce Ventures, Y Combinator and MasterCard, who have invested a total of $741.5 million through Series A to F in funding.

Notably in January 2020, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) constituted the ‘National Startup Advisory Council to advise the Government on measures needed to build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation and startups in the country to drive sustainable economic growth and generate large scale employment opportunities.