Bangalore, 30 Nov 2021

Cashfree Payments expands its MENA presence through investment in UAE-based Payment Gateway, Telr

With this strategic investment, Cashfree Payments and Telr aspire to become the market leader in the payments processing space in the MENA region Cashfree Payments to work jointly with the Telr team to continue providing innovative payment and API banking solutions in the MENA region Cashfree Payments and Telr to develop a unified cross-border payments platform using a single integration, thereby helping Indian merchants accept payments from MENA region and vice-versa

Bengaluru/Dubai, 30 November 2021: Leading payments and API banking solutions company,
Cashfree Payments (Cashfree) announced an equity investment of $15 million in Telr, a leading
Payment Service Provider (PSP) in UAE and Saudi Arabia. With this investment, Cashfree
becomes one of the largest shareholders in the company.
Cashfree has already established itself as one of the leaders in the payment solutions space in
India, with successful operationalization and scale-ups of industry-first solutions. Moreover, this
strategic investment in Telr, will enable the company to launch its distinctive offerings in the MENA
region utilizing Telr’s strong presence and payment infrastructure. In addition, Cashfree and Telr
aim to develop a unified cross-border payments platform that would help Indian merchants accept
payments from customers in the MENA region and vice-versa, via a single integration.
Telr, the UAE based award-winning payment gateway solutions provider, offers a unique platform
that enables handling payments in over 120 currencies and 30 languages with the highest level
of security. Through a single integration, Telr grants access to every payment method it offers,
including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, UnionPay, Apple Pay, PayPal, SADAD, Mada and
STCPay.
With its one-stop mindset, Telr extended its services even further, offering a complete solution for
the ecommerce world, covering a wide range of financial and business services including, social
commerce, QR Codes, digital invoicing, Telr Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) in collaboration with
Tabby, Telr Finance in collaboration with LNNDO, a merchant financing program, and Telr Shops
the easy-to-use tool for creating an online store in minutes.
The investment is highly significant for Cashfree as the MENA region offers a large, attractive and
growing online market, with payments representing the highly developed sub-sector within the
region’s fintech space. The MENA region is witnessing a continuous transition towards cashless
transactions, with traditional brick-and- mortar businesses moving towards expanding online
offerings. The e-commerce businesses are also witnessing a drastic shift from high street to online
shopping and this trend is expected to grow even more.


Akash Sinha, CEO and Co-Founder, Cashfree Payments said, “We are elated with the
strategic investment in Telr, which aligns well with our aspiration to be the leader in the rapidly
evolving digital payments space in the MENA region and overall global expansion goals. Telr’s
trusted presence and significant operations in the MENA region provides us an exciting opportunity.

We are grateful to our key institutional investor Apis for helping us source and execute
this strategic investment. We look forward to nurturing our partnership with Telr by leveraging our
learnings and experience from the Indian market and enhancing our reach in the MENA region
by introducing novel offerings.”


Khalil Alami, CEO and Founder, Telr said, “We are excited about this new investment into Telr.
Joining forces with Cashfree Payments will further enable us to continue on our innovation andgrowth journey.

Our offerings and partnerships aim to assist in reaching an integrated e-
commerce ecosystem supporting the UAE in its transition into a cashless economy

and contributing to the KSA vision 2030. In short, this combined effort will translate into greater
benefits for our customers and the markets we operate in.”

With over 50% market share among payment processors, Cashfree today leads the way in bulk
disbursals in India with Cashfree Payouts. Recently, India’s largest lender, SBI invested in
Cashfree underscoring the company’s role in building a robust payments ecosystem. Cashfree
works closely with all leading banks to build the core payments and banking infrastructure that
powers the company’s products and is also integrated with major platforms such as Shopify, Wix,
Paypal, Amazon Pay, Paytm and Google Pay. Apart from India, Cashfree products are used in
eight other countries including the USA, Canada and UAE.


About Cashfree Payments:

Cashfree Payments is a leading payment and API banking solutions company. It provides full-
stack payments solutions enabling businesses in India to collect payments and make payouts via

all available methods with simple integration. Cashfree Payments’ offerings include an advanced
and easy way to integrate payment gateway, a split payment solution for marketplaces, bank
account verification API and Auto Collect — a virtual account solution to match inbound payments
to customers. Founded by IIIT Hyderabad alumnus Akash Sinha and IIT Kharagpur graduate
Reeju Datta, http://www.cashfree.com is among the leading payment service providers in India
processing transactions worth USD 20 Billion annually. It has leveraged technology to lead
payment disbursals in India with more than 50% market share among payment processors.
Cashfree Payments enables more than 1,00,000 businesses with payment collections, vendor
payouts, wage payouts, bulk refunds, expense reimbursements, loyalty and rewards. Apart from
India, Cashfree Payments products are used in eight other countries including the USA, Canada
and UAE. Cashfree Payments is backed by Silicon Valley investor Y Combinator, Apis Partners,
State Bank of India (SBI) and was incubated by PayPal.


About Telr


Established in 2014, Telr is an award-winning, Dubai-based start-up offering payment gateway
solutions for SME’s, government bodies and large corporates. Its wholly owned, unique platform
enables it to handle complex or unique payment methods or integrations. TELR was awarded
with the prestigious Startup of the Year award in 2014. In 2015 Telr also won Best Payment
Product in the Middle East award, whilst in 2017 it was awarded Innovative Vendor – Fintech at
the 2017 GEC Awards in Dubai. With a fast-growing presence in the UAE, Saudi Arabia. TELR is
building a wider regional presence in the MENA Region. TELR enables businesses to transact in
over 120 currencies with payment platform capabilities in 30 languages and it provides customers

with a range of financial and business services that include social commerce, QR Codes, anti-
fraud protection, Shopping Cart Integrations, and digital invoicing. TELR is the first PCI DSS Level

1 certified company in MENA (payment security standards council). http://www.telr.com

About Apis Partners


The Apis Group (“Apis”) is an ESGI-native global private equity and venture asset manager that
supports growth stage financial services and financial infrastructure businesses by providing them
with catalytic growth equity capital. Collectively Apis, through its team of approximately 30
professionals with deep industry expertise, manages or advises on total committed capital from
investors (including drawn and invested capital) of US$1.2 billion.
Including its headquarters in London, Apis has representation in seven countries across Europe,
North, East and West Africa and South and Southeast Asia. Apis is highly conscious of the
developmental impact that the provision of growth capital for financial services and financial
infrastructure businesses in growth markets can achieve, and as such, financial inclusion is a core
tenet of Apis’ approach and investment mandate. Apis became a signatory to the United Nations
backed Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) upon inception of the firm in 2014.
http://www.apis.pe

Media Contacts:
Swagata Gupta I swagata.gupta@cashfree.com | 9820088951
Sinoj Sadanandan | sinoj.sadanandan@cashfree.com | 9619375635
Jyoti Tanwar | jyoti.tanwar@adfactorspr.com | 9819910523
Zena Asfour | Zena.asfour@telr.com | +971 50 526 5787
Stephanie Mullard | stephanie.mullard@apis.pe | +44 (0)20 3653 0500