Razorpay launches UPI Switch in partnership with Airtel Payments Bank

By Gloria Methri

Razorpay has launched its own UPI infrastructure, UPI Switch, a next-generation cloud-based innovation, in partnership with Airtel Payments Bank. The solution is designed to handle up to 10,000 transactions per second (TPS) and enables faster access to UPI innovations for businesses.

UPI (Unified Payments Interface) is India’s preferred payment method, representing 70% of digital transactions. In January 2024, UPI transactions reached a record Rs 18.41 trillion, showcasing its rapid adoption. Today, UPI has turned into a comprehensive payment platform, supporting various modes such as savings and current accounts, credit cards, prepaid wallets, and credit lines.

Razorpay’s UPI Switch provides a holistic infrastructure that enhances businesses’ experience with its range of features. It excels in dispute resolution, resolving issues 7x faster, within 24 hours, than the industry average of 7 days. Moreover, it can process refunds instantly compared to the industry standard of up to 3 days, ensuring a seamless customer experience.

Razorpay UPI Switch will be the foundational platform that will drive all future UPI innovations along with powering current Razorpay UPI innovations such as Turbo UPI, and TPAP solutions.

Commenting on the launch, Khilan Haria, Head of Payments Product at Razorpay, said, “Razorpay’s UPI Switch is designed to provide scalability and the best performance to businesses. This venture into UPI Infrastructure marks a strategic move to manage the end-to-end merchant experience and provide the industry’s leading stack. With latency below 100 milliseconds, a 4-5% increase in success rates, and features customized to suit business needs, our switch is crafted to enrich the payment experience and ensure that businesses can now manage the surge in UPI transactions on any sale or non-sale day.”

Ganesh Ananthanarayanan, Chief Operating Officer of Airtel Payments Bank, said, “We’re thrilled to announce our partnership with Razorpay, aimed at providing our customers with a seamless, secure, and scalable payment experience. Our integration with Razorpay’s UPI Switch, a cloud-based infrastructure for the most advanced UPI Stack, ensures 99.99% uptime and enables up to 10,000+ transactions per second. As UPI transactions continue to surge, our collaboration sets a new standard for business payments, aligning perfectly with the vision of a digital India.”

Razorpay has been leading UPI innovation since 2017, starting with enabling payment acceptance, introducing the UPI Autopay feature, to enabling credit card payments on UPI, and credit lines on UPI. Recently, Razorpay also launched ‘Turbo UPI’, a fast one-step UPI payment solution in India.