Cross-border payments platform, BRISKPE, has raised USD 5 million in a seed round from PayU, the payments and fintech business of Prosus. BRISKPE will use the funding to enhance its product and service offerings, expand its team and scale up its reach to enable more Indian businesses to set off on their global journey with seamless cross-border payments.

Launched in 2023, BRISKPE was designed to meet the requirements of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and help them reduce costs, streamline global operations and boost their global competitiveness.

BriskPe was founded by ex-HDFC Life chief marketing officer Sanjay Tripathy, Nilesh Pathak, who was previously the CTO of cross-border payments platform Nium, and Indunath Chaudhary who had worked with Citibank and ICICI Bank.

As per the Mumbai-based fintech company, they have a customer base of more than 1000 exporters and have collaborated with Yes Bank to facilitate transactions in over 36 foreign currencies across more than 180 countries. The company works within the framework of RBI’s OPGSP and has a money services business (MSB) licence from FINTRAC in Canada.

“This partnership represents a pivotal stride in simplifying cross-border transactions for MSMEs, enabling them to scale globally. At BRISKPE, we are committed to bridging the gap between domestic and international trade, empowering local businesses with our innovative solutions to thrive globally,” said Sanjay Tripathy, Co-Founder and CEO of BRISKPE.

According to a statement by the company, BRISKPE is on a mission to level the playing field for local businesses by simplifying global payments, making them cost-efficient, faster and hassle-free, while ensuring robust tracking and compliance.

The startup offers payment processing capabilities for small exporters and freelancers who work for global clients. While the company was regulated under the Online Payment Gateway Service Provider (OPGSP) guidelines of the central bank, it will now have to get licenced under the PA-CB rules of the RBI.

Vijay Agicha, Chief Investment Officer at PayU, said, “BRISKPE’s alignment with our cross-border payment strategy and focus on compliance highlights a symbiotic partnership. With BRISKPE’s top-notch management team expertise in digital-first business models and banking systems, we’re excited to actively participate in shaping their future growth.”

New-age startups such as Instarem, EximPe, Salt, PayPal, Skydo and Payglocal are looking to disrupt the cross-border payment space by making this process affordable for smaller merchants.

PayU, which recently received in-principle approval from The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a payment aggregator, has backed fintech startups like Indiagold, Fisdom, and Dot, among others.

In 2016, the company acquired Citrus Pay, a payments technology platform, for USD 130 million in one of the largest merger and acquisition deals that year.

In 2018, it invested USD 11.5 million in digital credit platform Paysense. In 2019, the company acquired digital payments company Wibmo for USD 70 million.

In 2020, the financial technology unicorn, along with investors such as Quona Capital and Saama Capital, invested USD 7 million in wealth-technology firm Fisdom. In 2021, the firm, along with Info Edge Ventures and Google, invested USD 27.5 million in Series A funding for the offline-to-online merchant platform DotPe.

Article Sources – BRISKPE (Press Release), ET