Cashfree’s Year-Long 1.6% PG Offer for Startups in India

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Cashfree offers startups a year-long 1.6% payment gateway rate until Dec 31, 2025, giving early-stage founders predictable costs, bigger margins, and runway.

From builders to backers: a different kind of milestone

When two founders set out to fix payments for Indian businesses, they focused on solving real problems rather than chasing headlines. A decade on, that focus has evolved into an initiative designed to give startups what matters most early on: stability. Cashfree’s 10-year initiative locks in a 1.6% payment gateway (PG) rate for a full year for startups that onboard by December 31, 2025 — not a brief promo, but predictable costs for the critical first 12 months.

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What the offer is and why it matters

The core of the initiative is simple: startups that sign up by December 31, 2025 will get a 1.6% PG rate for one year. Compared with a typical ~2% rate, this reduction might look small on paper — but for early-stage businesses every decimal point of margin matters. Fixed, lower transaction costs for 12 months give founders breathing room to test, iterate, and scale without transaction fees eating into runway.

Why one year changes everything

Most promotional rates in fintech last a month or two and are often capped by a small GMV threshold. Those offers are designed to attract signups, not to support the messy middle of building a business. Twelve months is different: it’s the period when an MVP can turn into product-market fit, when a hypothesis can be validated, and when early traction can be grown into momentum. Predictable payment costs over a full year reduce a major operational variable and free founders to focus on product, customers, and team growth.

Real savings, real impact

Practical examples show how meaningful the savings can be:

• D2C example: A direct-to-consumer startup doing Rs 20 lakh in monthly sales generates annual GMV of Rs 2.4 crore. At 2% PG fees that’s Rs 4.8 lakh a year; at 1.6% it’s Rs 3.84 lakh — a saving of Rs 96,000. That amount can fund marketing experiments, extra inventory, or essential operating costs.
• Scaling ecommerce: A fast-scaling brand at Rs 1 crore monthly GMV sees Rs 12 crore annually. At 2% the annual fee is Rs 24 lakh; at 1.6% it’s Rs 19.2 lakh — a Rs 4.8 lakh annual saving that can hire talent, retain an agency, or buy growth tools.

Beyond the arithmetic, these savings deliver a psychological lift: one predictable cost removed from the balance sheet gives founders room to take calculated risks and double down on what works.

Timing it right: ride the festive season

In India, the festive season drives peak consumer demand. For early-stage brands, festive months often determine the trajectory of the whole year. Locking a 1.6% PG rate just ahead of this season means every saved rupee during high-volume months becomes fuel for customer acquisition, product improvements, or building inventory — not just transaction overhead.

More than transactions: intent and empathy

What sets a move like this apart is the intent behind it. It reflects an understanding of the founder journey — the sleepless nights before payroll, the relentless A/B tests, the pivots. Financial products that treat startups as short-term acquisition targets miss the point. A year-long rate is an operational instrument: a predictable cost structure that complements capital, mentoring, and execution.

How startups can benefit

• Predictable budgeting and cash-flow planning for 12 months.
• Margin expansion that can be reinvested into growth or used to lengthen runway.
• Reduced transactional overhead during high-demand seasons, amplifying the ROI of marketing spend.
• The psychological advantage of one fewer variable to manage while scaling.

Looking ahead

Initiatives that lock in expense predictability over meaningful time horizons signal a maturing fintech ecosystem that understands startups beyond customer acquisition metrics. By offering a year-long 1.6% PG rate, this program shows how payment infrastructure can be a growth enabler rather than a cost center, helping Indian startups focus on building sustainable businesses.

Is this right for your startup?

If you are an early-stage or scaling business for whom payment costs are a meaningful line item, a year of predictable, lower PG rates can materially affect how you allocate precious resources. Onboard by December 31, 2025 to qualify, and use the savings to test aggressively, shore up runway, or accelerate customer acquisition during the busiest months of the year.

Predictability, not publicity: a pragmatic nod to the grind of building. For founders, that can be the difference between survival and scale.

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