Global payments solution major Mastercard on Tuesday said it has partnered with fintech player Razorpay to drive digital payments acceptance by small businesses and start-ups in the country.

The partnership will empower Indian micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in digitizing their operations, maintaining business continuity in the challenging environment and preparing for the future beyond cash, Mastercard said in a release.

Mastercard said before the outbreak of COVID-19, around 90 per cent of India’s retail payments were conducted in cash.

In recent months, the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital technologies and rapidly shifted how consumers prefer to shop and pay.

This presents a great opportunity to unite merchants, consumers, acquirers and fintech companies in expanding the adoption of digital payments in India, it said.

“We’re going through one of the biggest transformations in Indian financial history the Fintech Revolution that will significantly alter the payment and banking experience of consumers and businesses now and in the years to come. New businesses are evolving every day with different payment and banking needs and catering to a different set of consumers and markets,” said Amitabh Tewary, Chief Innovation Officer, Razorpay.

This partnership will help digital adoption and equip millions of businesses, especially in tier 2 and 3 cities, with industry-leading technologies that will help ensure business resilience, said Tewary.

“One of the initiatives that we will be working on jointly is to make recurring payments more accessible to businesses and consumers by creating seamless onboarding solutions for bill payments, digital content platforms and other subscription services,” he further said.

Mastercard said it has been actively working towards driving acceptance of digital payments in India. It will continue to enable ease of payments for merchants and payment aggregators to help them efficiently grow their businesses.

“Mastercard aims to make merchants across India digitally equipped and welcomes the fresh thoughts and technology that Razorpay will bring to help achieve this goal.

“Mastercard is committed to developing safe, secure and more convenient ways to make payments with its technology and expertise and is confident this partnership will deliver that and more,” said Rajeev Kumar K, Senior Vice President, Market Development, South Asia, Mastercard.