Fintech unicorn Razorpay on Thursday, October 26 secured a license to acquire merchants in Malaysia for Curlec, a digital payment startup. This move by Razorpay is aimed at taking its digital payment expertise to Malaysia, the company said, in an event held in Kuala Lumpur.

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With this expansion, Curlec by Razorpay will now become a non-bank member of PayNet, the first new member since 2019. With this membership, it will gain the power to drive the adoption of DuitNow, a real-time payment processing system. Similar to India's UPI, DuitNow allows users to transfer and receive funds instantly using just their mobile number and national identification number, eliminating the need for traditional bank account details.

"This move allows Curlec to support BNM’s aspirations to create a cashless society...Curlec believes that India’s real-time payments technology will prove instrumental to the adoption of DuitNow payments in Malaysia, due to the scale and success UPI has achieved in the Indian market," the company said.

"Malaysia is an important strategic market for us as we see plenty of similarities with the Indian payments market. Our extensive experience in navigating the diverse and dynamic landscape of the Indian market empowers us to continually leverage that expertise, tackling various challenges and resolving payment issues on a global scale. I believe that we can help play a pivotal role in driving the adoption of DuitNow, similar to how we helped scale UPI in India,” Rahul Kothari, Chief Business Officer, Razorpay said.

Curlec by Razorpay is now officially regulated by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), and serves over 1,000 businesses, including well-known Malaysian brands like Tune Protect, CTOS, Mary Kay, and The National Kidney Foundation.

Zac Liew, Co-Founder & CEO of Curlec by Razorpay, celebrated their newfound access to DuitNow via their PayNet membership. Liew highlighted that since the launch of their Payment Gateway in July, they are now processing more than RM2 billion annually and serving over 1,000 merchants. This sets the stage for Curlec to bring further innovation to Malaysia's digital payment landscape and scale DuitNow to new heights.

“Malaysia continues to take steps through its financial blueprint towards a cashless society with the aim of e-payment per capita increasing at over a 15% CAGR by The targeted growth of Malaysia’s digital payments sets the path for Curlec Payment Gateway’s target to serve more than 5,000 businesses with RM10 billion annualised gross transaction value (GTV) by 2025," Liew added.

Gary Yeoh, CCO, PayNet said at the event, "Malaysia’s Financial Sector blueprint seeks to futureproof key digital infrastructures to enable more digital finance solutions, and Curlec’s Payment Gateway is a welcome addition to our momentum in the blueprint. Digital transactions per capita have more than quadrupled, hiking from 49 in 2011 to over 221 in 2022."

"With the expectation that the number will reach over 400 by 2026, Curlec’s adoption of DuitNow is another ship lifted on the rising tide of digital payments," Yeoh added.

The High Commissioner of India to Malaysia, BN Reddy, welcomed Razorpay's entry into Malaysia's fintech space through Curlec and recognised the potential for collaboration between India and Malaysia in the fintech sector.

"India with its global leading role in digital payments powered by Digital India stack and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Malaysia with its digital economy priorities, offers fertile ground for such collaborations in fintech. I wish Razorpay and Curlec Teams success in Malaysia and in the Southeast Asia region," he said.

(Edited by : Anshul)