Razorpay’s Shashank Kumar takes over as MD; Murali B appointed new CTO

Payments and banking platform Razorpay has elevated Razorpay’s co-founder Shashank Kumar to the role of co-founder and managing director. Kumar, who worked as Razorpay chief technology officer up until now, has been replaced by Murali Brahmadesam, who joins as new head of engineering and chief technology officer at the company.

Murali has spent a major share of his career at tech majors Amazon and Microsoft, and has worked in India as well as the U.S. where he held several tech and leadership roles. His appointment comes at a time when Razorpay is fortifying its tech capabilities to build newer and advanced products.

On the appointment of Murali, Razorpay new MD Shashank Kumar says with over an 800-member engineering team, the company is working towards solving some of the toughest challenges that businesses face today. “I am excited to have him on board at a time when Razorpay is making strides into global markets and further deepening its expertise with all things business payments and business banking,” he adds.

Shashank, on his new role, says he’ll continue to bring to life Razorpay's long-term vision for engineering, product and GTM (go-t0-market).

Murali, who will now drive Rajorpay’s overall engineering strategy and development, says Razorpay has been at the forefront of inventing breakthrough products in business payment and banking. “I look forward to working with the team.”

The full-stack financial services company has a total workforce of about 2,300 members. Founded by IIT-Roorkee alumnis Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur, Razorpay is backed by marquee investors such as Lone Pine Capital, Alkeon Capital, GIC, Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital India, Salesforce Ventures, Y Combinator and MasterCard. The company has so far raised a total of $741.5 million.

Valued at over $7.5 billion, Razorpay serves over eight million businesses including Ola, Zomato, Swiggy and Cred. The startup claims to have achieved $60 billion in total payment volume (TPV) as of early December 2021. The company says it plans to achieve a $90 billion total payment volume by the end of 2022.

The Bengaluru-based company in February acquired a majority stake in Malaysian fintech firm Curlec to gain a foothold in South East Asia, a market it holds key to its overall growth narrative. The deal valued Curlec at about $19-20 million. The acquisition marked Razorpay’s first international expansion.

Recently, Facebook-owned messaging platform WhatsApp also tied up with RazorpayX, the neo-banking arm of Razorpay, to enable and boost its cashback system via UPI (Unified Payments Interface). As part of this, poeple using UPI make payments on WhatsApp and receive cashback; and RazorpayX helps ensure smooth transactions.