This marks Arif’s second stint at Razorpay, he was previously the Chief Digital Officer at NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India)

 India’s Preferred Payments and Banking Platform for Businesses,  Razorpay, today announced the reappointment of Arif Khan as its Chief Innovation Officer (CIO). A veteran in the Banking and Financial services industry, Arif brings his expertise in working with various stakeholders and an in-depth understanding of the sector spanning over two decades. Arif has held leadership positions in reputed organizations such as NPCI, MasterCard, HDFC Bank, among others. 

Prior to joining Razorpay again, Arif served as the Chief Digital Officer at NPCI where he led strategic planning pertaining to digital transformation for the organization. He drove multiple technology initiatives, leveraged data and analytics to drive innovations, understood new market behaviors, and developed relevant solutions accordingly. During his first stint at Razorpay from 2017 to 2019, he led several key initiatives and contributed to building a holistic business architecture for the company. Further, he was instrumental in building the foundation for Razorpay’s banking services and established strong external stakeholder relationships. Prior to Razorpay, Arif served as the Senior Business Leader at Mastercard where he was responsible for driving growth for the company’s payment gateway platform and Mastercard’s ‘Simplify Commerce’. Prior to Mastercard, Arif was Senior Vice President at HDFC Bank where he led and implemented strategic projects in the payments and digital space. Arif was associated with HDFC Bank for 15 glorious years and played a significant role in promoting strategic initiatives in payments, digital banking, and financial inclusion.

Welcoming Arif back to the company, Harshil Mathur, CEO & Co-founder at Razorpay, said, “We are beyond thrilled to have Arif back in the Razorpay family. During his previous stint with us, he played a crucial role in establishing several foundational pillars of our Banking capabilities and nurtured strong relations with various external stakeholders. We are confident that his experience of working with leading financial institutions and especially his ability to influence diverse groups to deliver end-objectives will help Razorpay in furthering its vision of building the financial backbone for small businesses in India. The ecosystem is at its exciting best at the moment and with Arif on board we look forward to creating valuable and differentiated products and experiences for digital businesses and their consumers.” 

In his second tenure as the CIO of Razorpay, Arif will lead the Banking, Risk Management, Regulatory Affairs, and Public Policy teams toward the larger organizational vision of fine-tuning Razorpay’s offerings in the digital payments space. He will be playing a key role in leading engagement with banks, networks, regulators, and strategic partners to drive innovation at Razorpay. He will be responsible for accelerating the adoption of new payment and banking platforms and products. 

Arif Khan, Chief Innovation Officer at Razorpay commented, “The financial landscape has seen a monumental change in the last couple of years. Supported by regulations, the Indian digital payments industry is growing tremendously and is set to triple to $10 trillion by 2026. Razorpay has spearheaded several innovations with its cutting-edge solutions and I believe this story of innovation and disruption is going to continue and grow stronger. The fintech giant is amongst the most respected Indian fintech companies with an excellent work culture that has already proved its mettle in the payments and neo-banking business. I am committed and look forward to contributing to Razorpay’s goal towards addressing all things payments and banking for businesses and I am excited to be a part of the Razorpay story again.” 

Arif’s appointment comes at a time when Razorpay has entered the offline payments space with its recent acquisition of one of India’s leading point-of-sale payments startups, Ezetap. His role will be crucial in standardizing operations, improving efficiency, and expanding Razorpay’s solutions suite for the offline payment landscape too.

Over the last 8 years, Razorpay, trusted by over 8 Mn businesses, has repeatedly disrupted the process of accepting payments and managing banking operations for online businesses. With an $80 billion TPV as of April 2022, the company is now eyeing a 10-12 Million merchant base by next year. The Fintech Unicorn is at the forefront of India’s digital financial revolution building the central nervous system for Digital India, with clear dominance in digital payments and its fast-growing neo-banking arm, RazorpayX.