Neon Partners with Razorpay to Offer Direct-to-Consumer Payments in India's Gaming Market.

Neon and Razorpay have partnered to provide direct-to-consumer payments in India's gaming market. Neon's Merchant of Record platform now supports payments in India, expanding its global Payment Service Provider network. The partnership unlocks scale and margin for clients while giving Indian players seamless, local payment experiences. India's mobile gaming ecosystem is growing rapidly, with a record 8.45 billion app installs in FY 2024-25, and digital payment infrastructure maturing.

Neon, a leading direct-to-consumer (DTC) payments platform for games, has announced a strategic partnership with Razorpay, India's premier payment service provider. This collaboration aims to enhance Neon's global Payment Service Provider network and strengthen its international reach by supporting payments in India [1].

The partnership allows Neon clients to accept payments from Indian players using local currency via UPI-enabled methods, in addition to credit and debit cards. This integration is significant as it caters to India's rapidly growing mobile gaming market. According to Neon, India represents one of its priority markets due to the country's massive, mobile-first audience and the fastest-growing user base in mobile gaming [1].

Chris Faught, Founder and CEO of Neon, highlighted the partnership's benefits: "India is one of the most exciting growth opportunities in gaming today: a massive, mobile-first audience, now reachable through efficient direct-to-consumer payments. This is exactly why we built Neon. With Razorpay, we’re unlocking both scale and margin for our clients, while giving players in India the seamless, local experiences they expect" [1].

The partnership leverages Razorpay's Online Payment Gateway, enabling Indian players to pay using UPI-enabled wallets and local credit and debit cards in Indian rupees. This supports UPI, which is India's dominant real-time payment rail, accounting for the vast majority of online transactions [1].

For game publishers, Neon acts as the Merchant of Record (MoR) in India, handling tasks such as checkout, tax compliance, fraud protection, and dispute management. Razorpay's compliance with the RBI's PA-CB framework ensures secure, cross-border remittance and timely settlements, allowing Neon to reliably move funds out of India and into global operations [1].

Neon's payment network now includes seven partner Payment Service Providers (PSPs), including Razorpay, Stripe, PayPal, Paysafe, dLocal, bamboo, and Komoju. This network covers 99%+ of global mobile game spending, including all top 50 global markets [1].

The collaboration underscores the growing importance of digital payment infrastructure in India. The country's mobile gaming ecosystem is expanding rapidly, with a record 8.45 billion app installs in FY 2024-25, making India the largest mobile gaming market by volume globally [1].

References:
[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/neon-razorpay-partner-bring-world-130700331.html