Razorpay banks on young leaders

Students in IIT Roorkee, roommates in Bengaluru and now co-founders. Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar have spent a lot of time together and their collaboration has produced Razorpay, one of India’s most successful digital payments startups.

Razorpay’s journey exemplifies the tech story of struggle and scale. During the early days in 2015, the company operated out of an apartment in Bengaluru’s Koramangala area. It grew to occupy a floor in a commercial building and then the entire property. Its employee count, which nearly doubled during the pandemic, is now 1,900-strong.

But one aspect is particularly striking: Razorpay, last valued at $7.5 billion, has one of the youngest founders in fintech.

While it has come a long way, with top executives’ job descriptions and responsibilities evolving, Kumar and Mathur have left some things unchanged. They are still roommates with an overlapping social life and in the office, they continue to play distinct roles.