Razorpay Charts Return to India; Eyes Expansion, IPO

Firm is likely to complete its reverse-flip in six months, with an IPO expected in two years

- Priyamvada C

India-born and bred but US-incorporated Razorpay has been talking for two years about bringing its parent entity back to its roots. The fintech startup may now be among the earliest to take advantage of new rules that make it easier for companies to reverse-flip by merging a foreign parent with its Indian subsidiary.

Razorpay is likely to complete its reverse-flipping process in six months, co-founder and chief executive Harshil Mathur told Mint in an interview, adding that an initial public offering of its shares would possibly take another two years.

"We are still waiting for the approvals (for moving the parent entity's domicile) to happen, so it should take anywhere between 3 and 6 months from now. After we flip, we need at least 6-8 quarters of clean financials before we go public, so I'd say that we are at least 2 years from an IPO," he said.

Razorpay, however, may incur $200-300 million in tax outgo in the process of shifting its domicile to India, as per various media reports. Without disclosing the exact figures, Mathur explained that the tax would be paid to US authorities and the financial impact would be decided based on the company's fair market valuation at the time of approval.