Indians make millions of purchases and payments every day, both online and offline. If it’s online, the consumer is guided to the checkout page of a merchant’s website or app, chooses their payment option from UPI/card/net banking/wallet and then clicks pay, before completing the transaction and entering their password or OTP.
Pretty simple, right? Behind that seemingly simple transaction is a network of banks, payment processors, gateways, fraud/security systems and technology providers — and many of the companies operating this infrastructure are largely invisible to the end consumer. So, while you might not know the company AvenuesAI, you probably use their payment infrastructure.
AvenuesAI: The smallcap behind the payment button
AvenuesAI is a payment infrastructure provider offering B2B digital payment solutions, enterprise e-commerce software and lending solutions. The company operates CCAvenue, a platform that sits between merchants and the financial system, helping businesses accept and process digital payments. The interesting point here is that unlike payment apps like Google Pay, Paytm and PhonePe, CCAvenue is not really a consumer-facing brand — it is primarily B2B payment infrastructure.
How it started: Two companies, one acquisition, and the combination of e-commerce tech and digital payments
AvenuesAI began as two different companies: Avenues and Infibeam, in 2001 and 2007. Avenues, founded by ex-lawyer Vishwas Patel, built CCAvenue as a simple and cost-effective payment gateway and online payment solution designed for Indian e-commerce merchants.
Infibeam was founded in 2007 by ex-Amazon executive Vishal Mehta and started as an e-commerce marketplace before expanding into software and digital commerce infrastructure, eventually pivoting to a DPS (Digital Payment Solutions) and ESP (Enterprise Software Platform) provider.
The two businesses were serving India’s emerging digital economy from different directions. Infibeam was helping businesses get online; CCAvenue was helping them accept payments online. Over time, Avenues developed into a broader e-commerce solutions provider, while CCAvenue became its flagship payment-processing business. By 2008, CCAvenue was South-Asia’s No 1 payment gateway; by 2016, they had a one lakh merchant base.
Infibeam already held a 3.85% stake in Avenues (India) Private Limited, the company behind CCAvenue, through its subsidiary NSI Infinium Global. In 2017, Infibeam increased its stake in Avenues (India) Private Limited, the company behind CCAvenue, to 11.35%, investing a total of ₹210 crore and obtaining operating, financial, and board control from April. Rather than buying out the remaining shareholders for cash, Infibeam subsequently proposed an all-share amalgamation of Avenues with itself. The July 2017 scheme valued Avenues at approximately ₹2,000 crore, with Avenues shareholders to receive Infibeam shares in exchange for their holdings. The merger was approved by the NCLT in May 2018, and Infibeam allotted shares to Avenues shareholders on May 30, 2018.
This deal brought together two sides of the same digital-commerce ecosystem: Infibeam’s e-commerce platforms and CCAvenue’s payment infrastructure. What began with a payment gateway eventually became the foundation for Infibeam’s, and later AvenuesAI’s, broader fintech business.
Evolution and current offerings
To understand AvenuesAI, start with something most of us do almost every day: click “Pay” on an online purchase. If you are buying a pair of shoes online, once you get to the checkout page, you have multiple ways to pay: credit card, debit card, UPI, net banking, or a wallet.
The e-commerce retailer/merchant does not have to build a separate technological connection with every bank, card network, or payment method. Instead, a payment gateway like CCAvenue acts like a bridge between the merchant and the payment ecosystem, providing the technology that helps route the transaction, obtain authorisation, and send the result back to the merchant. One gateway for different payment methods and different banks.
Over the years, AvenuesAI has gradually expanded the CCAvenue ecosystem beyond online payments, broadly across three areas:
- Online payments: CCAvenue enables merchants to accept a wide range of payment methods, including cards, UPI and other digital payment options. It also handles domestic and international transactions, with the company expanding its presence in markets such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
- Payments beyond the checkout page: The company has moved into physical and assisted payments as well. BillAvenue, operating within the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS), connects consumers and billers through a network that extends into rural and semi-urban India. With over 1.2 million agents across India and participation from 85% of billers on BBPS, BillAvenue caters to both large-scale enterprises and everyday consumers. CCAvenue has also begun taking its payment technology into physical stores. TapPay, an omnichannel payment solution that targets offline payments, can turn an Android smartphone into a contactless payment terminal. CCAvenue’s Smart SoundBox integrates QR, NFC, card, EMI, and UPI acceptance audio alerts into a single device. These products are aimed particularly at smaller merchants and businesses outside the traditional online checkout.
- Technology and AI: AvenuesAI is also building a broader technology layer around their payments infrastructure that includes fraud detection, risk analytics and AI-led products. Its PhroneticAI tool applies AI to advanced adaptive fraud detection and risk analytics. The company has also expanded into enterprise software and other digital infrastructure.
So while AvenuesAI started with the technology that helps merchants get paid online, it has now evolved into providing a much broader layer of payment, commerce and technology infrastructure that is available online, offline and is AI-driven.
The “invisible” layer in millions of daily payments and purchases
A payment may take only a few seconds, but there is a considerable amount of infrastructure and technology behind those seconds. CCAvenue began as a way for merchants to accept payments online; AvenuesAI has since built a broader fintech ecosystem around that foundation. For consumers, much of this happens in the background. But for the businesses processing transactions, connecting payment methods and building tools around commerce, this infrastructure is the business itself.
If AvenuesAI shows us what happens behind a digital payment, the next company brings us back to something we can actually hold: the physical card in your wallet, which we will look at in Part 2 of this story.
Sources
Infibeam Annual Report 2016-17
AvenuesAI: Notice of 15th Annual General Meeting and Annual Report for the F.Y. 2024‐25
Infibeam Avenues: Q4 FY25 & Full Year Earnings Presentation