airpay Payment Services Gets RBI’s Cross-border Payment Aggregator Licence

airpay Payment Services announced it has received the Reserve Bank of India’s approval to operate as a cross-border payment aggregator. Following the regulator’s nod, the company now has the license to operate and process online, physical, and cross-border payments.

With the approval in place, airpay has forecast a 30–40% rise in processing volumes over the next year or so, and over 20% increase in revenue from cross-border flows. The company aims to onboard more than 50,000 merchants during the same period.

“Our exporters, SaaS firms, digital merchants, and local retailers are all engaging globally, and they need reliability, compliance, and speed in payments,” said Kunal Jhunjhunwala, Founder, airpay Payment Services. “RBI’s approval strengthens our ability to provide Indian businesses a regulated yet seamless bridge to make or collect payments from Mumbai, Manipur, or to Madrid,” he added.

RBI’s payment aggregator – cross border framework brings cross-border payment facilitators like airpay under the regulator’s supervision, regulating entities handling international payments for Indian merchants/consumers, ensuring strict escrow management, KYC/AML compliance, linking with authorized dealer banks, setting transaction limits, and foreign-exchange regulations. For businesses, this results in reduced compliance overhead, lower settlement risks, and greater transparency in international commerce.

Compliance Risk, Seamless Money Flows

India’s payment aggregation ecosystem is entering a phase where reliability, regulatory discipline and full-stack infrastructure are essential for growth. As businesses scale across online, offline and international markets, they need payment partners who can help reduce compliance risk and ensure money movement remains fully within RBI and Foreign Exchange Management Act guardrails. 

Going forward, businesses that can prove end-to-end compliance while maintaining uptime, security, and speed will be at the forefront of driving India’s economic growth, enabling small and medium enterprises to seize varied opportunities without operational or financial hurdles.

The cross-border payments aggregator segment in India has been witnessing significant growth and activity, with Razorpay recently securing the RBI’s cross-border payment aggregator licence. In November, PayU too received the green signal from RBI to operate as a payment aggregator for online, offline, and cross-border transactions.

Founded in 2012, airpay is an omnichannel financial services platform with over 5 million customers, presence in more than 5,900 villages across nearly 560 districts in 37 states and union territories.