CashFree takes stake in Dubai’s Telr

Merchant payments platform CashFree Payments, which is backed by India’s largest lender, State Bank of India, has acquired a majority stake in Dubai-based payment solutions provider Telr. CashFree has invested USD 15 million to become the single largest shareholder and will leverage the acquisition to grow seamless merchant-led cross-border payments and also to expand to Middle East markets where online payments still constitute 2% of the overall transactions.

The investment will enable CashFree to launch its offerings in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region using Telr’s strong presence and payments infrastructure. Cashfree and Telr aim to develop a unified cross-border payments platform that would help Indian merchants accept payments from customers in the MENA region and vice versa, via a single integration. Telr offers access to every payment method including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, UnionPay, Apple Pay, PayPal, SADAD, Mada, and STCPay.

Telr also offers solutions for the e-commerce space, covering a wide range of financial and business services including, social commerce, QR Codes, digital invoicing, Telr Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) in collaboration with Tabby, Telr Finance in collaboration with LNNDO, a merchant financing program, and Telr Shops, the tool for creating an online store.