Razorpay buys Malaysian fintech firm Curlec in first international acquisition

Fintech unicorn, Razorpay has announced its first international acquisition by acquiring a majority stake in Curlec, a leading Malaysian firm. Razorpay’s CEO and co-founder, Harshil Mathur said that the deal valued the company at $19-$20 million. Mathur said that Curlec acquisition will mark the first global buyout for Razorpay and that the company will be focussed on emerging markets in South-East Asia including Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam.
 
Curlec is a Kuala Lumpur-based company, building solutions for recurring payments for modern businesses of all sizes. This also marks Razorpay’s fourth acquisition.
 
Currently South-East Asia is a digital payment powerhouse, having witnessed significant financial transformation over the last few years, driven by changing consumer and retail trends and more inclusive payment options. And while e-commerce is already booming in Malaysia with an estimated market size of $21 billion in 2021, an industry report said it is estimated to grow further to over $35 billion by 2025, fuelled by the emergence of new mobile payment methods, as per Razorpay’s official handout.

It added that Malaysian shoppers are more open to cross-border shopping, with 40 per cent of online transactions happening cross-border. And with the entry of new e-commerce consumers, Razorpay believes a broader range of payment services are required. The company is confident that an acquisition such as this will further unveil new channels for global business expansion for online businesses based in India and Malaysia, the official statement read.
 
Curlec was founded by two entrepreneurs, Zac Liew and Steve Kucia in 2018. The company builds new-age technology solutions on top of existing payments infrastructure, to make it easier for companies to collect recurring payments and take control of their cash flows. Initially backed by 500 gobal and other investors, the company’s annual revenue has been growing at nearly 5X since 2018.

“With Curlec coming onboard, we at Razorpay are really excited as we mark our first step towards expanding in the South East Asia region. With the vast experience in a heterogenous market like India over the last seven years, our expansion to the Southeast Asia payments market is timed exactly to coincide with the company’s growing dominance in all things payments,” Harshil Mathur, CEO and Co-Founder, Razorpay said.
 
“Together, we are confident that we will be optimally positioned to take on the unique challenges that both India & Malaysian markets put forth, and look forward to reimagining and transforming the payments ecosystem in South-East Asia,” he added.
 
“We are incredibly excited to be combining forces with Harshil, Shashank and the Razorpay team. We’ve long admired what they’ve built in India from afar and are fully aligned with a common vision of building payment and banking solutions from top to bottom, for any business. We look forward to the next phase of our journey and scaling together across Malaysia and Southeast Asia,” Zac Liew, Co-Founder & CEO of Curlec said.
 
Prior to this, Razorpay acquired TERA Finlabs, (AI-based risk tech SaaS Platform) in 2021, Opfin (Payroll & HR management solution) in 2019 and Thirdwatch (Fraud Analytics AI-platform) in 2018.