Supporting the shift to a cashless society

Curlec by Razorpay CEO Zac Liew.

PAYMENT gateway company Curlec by Razorpay is heeding Corporate Malaysia’s call for a transition into a cashless society.

With this in mind, the company has lined up a full-stack of payment solutions that make it easy for businesses of all sizes, including small and medium enterprises (SMEs), to collect payments, automate payouts and take control of their cash flow.

The financial technology (fintech) player, which recently tied up with TNG eWallet operator TNG Digital, currently processes up to 10,000 transactions per second and serves a vast range of clientele with over 2,000 merchants locally and over 10 million businesses globally.

The company’s co-founder and chief executive officer Zac Liew tells StarBizWeek: “We are committed to enabling Malaysia’s transition to a cashless society by focusing on inclusivity and accessibility for all, including startups, SMEs and enterprises.

“As we are providing services to over 10 million businesses globally, we need to ensure the security of our merchant’s transactions is a top priority.

“Furthermore, Bank Negara closely regulates Curlec and employs advanced security measures to ensure the company adopts the best encryption practices and robust fraud detection processes to protect sensitive payment information, including compliance with industry standards and regulations.

“Providing a reliable and high-performing payment gateway through unparalleled UX (user experience) and UI (user interface) is crucial for Curlec to conduct business.

“The company ensures minimal downtime, providing 99.99% system availability and fast transaction processing to meet the demands of businesses and customers. Today, we are able to process more than 10,000 transactions per second,” Liew explains.

UI refers to the interactivity, look and feel of a product screen or web page, while UX covers a user’s overall experience with the product or website.

On top of that, he says, the payment gateway company invests in innovative technologies to stay ahead in the payments industry.

This includes developing new features, improving existing services and adopting cutting-edge technologies to enhance payment processing.

In India, he says, the company is the market leader in Unified Payments Interface (UPI) real-time payments, the first to market direct debit in Malaysia and offer a seamless transition into DuitNow.

Founded in 2018, the company recorded a 600% year-on-year growth in payment volumes in 2020. In 2022, Curlec was acquired by leading Indian fintech unicorn, Razorpay, hence it was renamed as Curlec by Razorpay.

Curlec by Razorpay in July 2023 unveiled its Curlec Payment Gateway solution, combining India’s world-class tech capabilities with a deep, local understanding of the Malaysian payment ecosystem, to provide businesses with a payment gateway that accepts payments, and automates payouts, allowing businesses to focus on their customers.

At the same time, Curlec offers merchants with comprehensive on-the-ground support and operations support teams.

Ensuring the company’s merchants receive a fast support response time, Curlec provides resources, training and dedicated customer support to help businesses effectively use their payment solutions.

It also has “Curlec Docs”, a section from the company’s website where it enables merchants ranging from social commerce businesses such as Instagram or TikTok shops, SMEs to enterprises to access the comprehensive Curlec documentation for troubleshooting.

Liew says Curlec helps SMEs digitise their business, bringing their offline store online not just through payments but by providing easy-to-use code-free sales and marketing tools to start selling online.

Citing some examples of how the company has boosted its merchants’ businesses, he says through the collaboration with Nateskin, a homegrown Malaysian brand that specialises at-home body grooming solutions, it helped boost Nateskin’s Financial Process Exchange (FPX) and eWallet transactions by 51.3%, reduced processing fees by 20%, and increased efficiency by streamlining refunds through Shopify’s dashboard.

FPX is a Malaysia-based payment method that allows customers to complete transactions online using their bank credentials. Bank Negara and 11 other major Malaysian financial institutions are members of the PayNet Group, which owns and operates FPX.

Another example is Kualesa, a Malaysian brand that creates eco-conscious apparel, focusing on comfort and sustainability. For this merchant, Liew says the company managed to streamline orders using “payment pages” resulting in an 18% cost reduction.

“Curlec also introduced a new invoicing method through payment links and decreased the clicks-to-checkout rate by 43%,” he adds. A payment page is a web page that allows customers to purchase items easily and securely.

As to how Curlec differentiates itself from its competitors, Liew says the company stands out by bridging the gap between technological sophistication and local adaptations.

He says consumers can use their preferred payment method without compromises and businesses are no longer torn between choosing local and international payment gateway options with drawbacks in technology or localisation.

He says providing a reliable and high-performing payment gateway through unparalleled UI and UX is crucial for Curlec to conduct business.

Liew says: “The company’s payment gateway checkout is customisable to the company’s brand logo and colours. This increases brand trustworthiness and customer confidence in performing a transaction.

“Furthermore, the Curlec payment gateway checkout does not have any bothersome redirects. Merchant’s customers are able to start and end payments on the same page without any redirections to third-party pages. This ultimately helps businesses reduce cart abandonment rates.

“It also provides simple integration via an easy application programming interface (API) and direct plugins to platforms like Shopify, Woocommerce, Magento and more,” he says.

In an effort to boost financial accessibility, Curlec last month forged a partnership with TNG Digital, Malaysia’s largest integrated fintech player, and the operator of TNG eWallet.

Directly integrated with the TNG eWallet, this enables Curlec to work collaboratively to empower underserved markets to improve financial accessibility for merchants and consumers nationwide. This includes SMEs, unbanked individuals in rural areas and the younger generation lacking access to debit or credit cards.

Liew said through this partnership, Curlec will be one of the first payment gateways in the market to offer recurring payments with TNG eWallet.

Post-Covid-19 pandemic, he says SMEs are still experiencing cash-flow issues. Studies have shown that 87% of micro, small and medium enterprises in Malaysia have encountered challenges obtaining loans and financing from banks, he adds.

“Utilising Curlec’s payment gateway with TNG eWallet empowers SMEs to collect payments regularly, which would help in their overall financial cash flow.

“As such, small businesses such as tuition centres, community gyms or any subscription-based business such as rent-to-own items, or self-storage facilities would benefit from Curlec’s payment gateway which offers recurring payment on the TNG eWallet,” he stresses.