The archive · Money & Fintech · Strategic decision · 2023-2025
POP bets UPI rewards can beat Paytm: Razorpay takes majority with $30M
POP's POPcoins-rewards UPI app grew to 1M monthly transactors in a year; Razorpay bought a majority stake with $30M
POP
What the business is
Rewards-first UPI payments app that blends payments, a D2C marketplace and a co-branded RuPay credit card, with POPcoins earned on every transaction
Starting capital：$30M from Razorpay in June 2025 for a majority stake; earlier backers IndiaQuotient, Unilever Ventures, Incubate Fund and Nuventures brought total funding past $5M before the deal
How it started
Launched in May 2023 in Bengaluru by Bhargav Errangi, a former Flipkart executive. POP set out to claim the third major spot in India's UPI ecosystem, rewarding every transaction with POPcoins redeemable at D2C brands. Its UPI platform went live in June 2024.
What happened
Within about a year of the UPI launch, POP scaled to 600,000+ daily UPI transactions, 1M monthly active transactors and 200,000 monthly commerce shipments, and issued 40,000+ co-branded RuPay credit cards with Yes Bank. It raised a seed round from IndiaQuotient and later added Unilever Ventures, Incubate Fund and Nuventures as backers.
How it ended up
Razorpay invested $30M in June 2025 for a majority stake, folding POP into its push beyond payments into loyalty and engagement; POP continues to operate as an independent entity
Background
POP is a Bengaluru fintech founded in May 2023 by Bhargav Errangi, a former Flipkart executive. It runs a rewards-first UPI payments app that combines payments, a D2C-focused marketplace and a co-branded RuPay credit card, with POPcoins earned on every transaction and redeemed at partner brands.
The bet was that plain UPI is a commodity, so a third player could still win by changing user behavior: a brand-funded rewards currency that raises retention and lowers customer-acquisition costs for merchants. POP's stated mission was to beat Paytm and take the third major spot in the UPI ecosystem.
Traction followed quickly. After launching its UPI platform in June 2024, POP reported more than 600,000 daily UPI transactions, one million monthly active transactors and 200,000 monthly commerce shipments, plus 40,000+ co-branded RuPay cards issued with Yes Bank, as of June 2025.
In June 2025 Razorpay invested $30 million for a majority stake, with POP continuing to operate independently. Razorpay CEO Harshil Mathur framed the deal as serving D2C merchants better — combining instant rewards, seamless payments and brand discovery — building on Razorpay's earlier PoshVine acquisition and its Engage growth suite.
What has to be true
- UPI itself is free and interchangeable, so POP differentiated on a rewards layer rather than trying to out-price Paytm or PhonePe.
- POPcoins are brand-funded, which aligns merchant goals — lower CAC, higher repeat purchase — with consumer rewards.
- Measurable traction (600K daily transactions, 1M monthly transactors in a year) proved the loop worked before the big deal.
- Razorpay's majority stake turned a consumer app into strategic infrastructure for D2C loyalty, giving POP distribution it could not build alone.
- The co-branded RuPay card added a credit angle that pure rewards apps lack, deepening engagement per user.
What can be applied
When the core product is a commodity, the moat moves to behavior: POP wrapped UPI in a rewards currency that lowers merchant acquisition costs — that is why a payments giant paid to own it.
Aftermath
After the June 2025 deal, POP said it would use the capital to accelerate product innovation, strengthen the POPcoins rewards currency and deepen D2C and lifestyle merchant partnerships while operating independently under Razorpay's majority ownership. Razorpay positioned the investment as part of its move beyond payment infrastructure into loyalty, engagement and commerce enablement.
Sources
- Exclusive: Razorpay Picks Up Majority Stake In POP With $30 Mn Infusion
- Fintech Startup POP Raises USD 30 Mn from Razorpay
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