Razorpay Turned India’s Payments Friction Into a $180 Billion Platform
In a Startup School India fireside with YC’s Jon Xu, Razorpay co-founder and CEO Harshil Mathur argues that the company’s rise in Indian payments came less from an initial fintech thesis than from staying with a painful customer problem through regulation, bank failures and market skepticism. Mathur says Razorpay turned delays into a moat, customer trust into an operating principle, and early bets such as UPI into openings incumbents missed. His broader case is that founders must keep direct ownership of the decisions that define the company, especially as AI lowers the cost of building and raises the cost of slow judgment.
Y Combinator·May 7, 2026·13 min read
