In a season where celebrity cameos, high-octane jingles, and brand grandstanding were par for the course, Razorpay did the unexpected. It turned its multi-crore IPL ad buy into a megaphone for others, 37 startups, to be exact. 

The brand’s #BackingIndiasBoldest campaign handed over its prime-time real estate to India's most exciting founders, telling their stories in sleek black-and-white films, voiced by the entrepreneurs themselves. No product pitch. No brand features. Just raw, founder-first storytelling.

This wasn’t just a campaign. It was a quiet revolution.

Why Razorpay gave up its own screen time

The idea was deceptively simple: What if Razorpay used its IPL airtime not to promote its own offerings such as payments, banking, payroll or credit, but to spotlight the bold businesses built using those very tools? 

As a brand that has always been founder-first, Razorpay wanted to empower entrepreneurs, celebrate their journeys, and make them the champions. The campaign brought these founders in front of India, giving them the stage to share their stories and inspire others.

According to Apuarv Sethi, Razorpay’s CMO, that question sparked everything. “These are the people solving hard problems, creating jobs, and building the future. As a brand built to support them, it was only right we gave them the mic.”

So that’s what Razorpay did. From Mamaearth and OYO to The Whole Truth Foods, Blissclub, and Nish Hair, the campaign featured 37 original ad films, each dedicated to a single founder. The ads were stark, direct, and deeply personal. No flashy animations. No corporate fluff. Just founders talking about why they do what they do.

37 Founders, 37 films, 1 movement

The brand featured founders from startups like Mamaearth, OYO, Blissclub, Nish Hair, The Whole Truth Foods, and more. Each film was personal, stripped-back, and deliberately non-commercial. No actors. No jingles. Just founders telling their story - in black and white, and in their own words.

The core campaign ran across IPL broadcast slots, but it didn’t stay there. What began as a storytelling initiative quickly snowballed into a social movement. Hundreds of founders, from Razorpay’s community and beyond, began joining in.

The Rize community, Razorpay’s early-stage founder network, was brought into the fold with over 75 custom-made films featuring new, emerging voices. These weren’t just ads. They were badges of identity. Founders saw their values, pain points, and missions reflected back to them, on national TV and on LinkedIn feeds.

There was also the AI-powered “Tribute Generator,” which allowed anyone to create and share a card celebrating a founder they admired. Within weeks, more than 250 nominations flooded social platforms. Thousands of tribute cards popped up on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. Entrepreneurs were tagging each other. Supporters were tagging their favourite startup teams. Suddenly, being a founder wasn’t just admirable, it was aspirational.

And Razorpay? It stayed mostly in the background, playing cheerleader.

From founders to fanboys

If there’s one thing that set this campaign apart, it was the tone. Razorpay didn’t posture. It didn’t say “Look at us.” Instead, it said “Look at them.” That shift in narrative, putting the founders on a pedestal, struck a chord.

“Behind every ambitious founder is a team, investors, friends, and family... and now, Razorpay,” that’s the kind of vibe the launch ad put out. The brand became a fanboy, not a sponsor.

Marketing by subtraction was wired into the campaign’s DNA, remove the self-congratulation, and let the purpose speak louder than the product.

Government and ecosystem backing

The movement didn’t go unnoticed. Government entities like MeitY Startup Hub, Assam Startup, and iStart Rajasthan joined in with public endorsements. Leading VCs like Z47, Elevation Capital, Lightspeed, and Mars Shot Ventures amplified the campaign across their handles.

As per Sethi, "When VCs, government bodies, and ecosystem leaders joined in, we knew something bigger was happening. It was not just a campaign anymore; it was a movement. It told us that the ecosystem was hungry for this kind of narrative: one that celebrated founders and their grit with authenticity, empathy, and collective pride.”

LinkedIn feeds were full of appreciation posts, campaign cutdowns, and reaction videos, including one from entrepreneur and creator Mrunal Panchal Sharma. Razorpay’s core idea, ‘India needs new icons, and they’re wearing hoodies, not helmets’ was catching on.

Performance over promotion

The results? Staggering.

• 18 million+ impressions across social
  
  

• Over 404,000 engagements
  
  

• More than 1,000 founders participated in some form
  
  

• 75+ custom films from Razorpay Rize founders
  
  

• 250+ tribute card nominations generated through the AI tool

And perhaps more importantly, the startup world listened. Founders from Oatey, Anomaly, Typof Commerce, Prodloop and dozens of others took to LinkedIn to post their versions of the ad. In some cases, these were the first times early-stage founders had ever been showcased on this scale.

In a typical IPL campaign, you'd be counting cost-per-clicks and view-through rates. Razorpay measured success differently, by how many founders felt seen.

A blueprint for founder-first marketing

It’s rare to see a B2B brand treat marketing like art, or purpose like action. But Razorpay didn’t just try something bold. It backed boldness itself.

That meant handing over media space, shaping custom scripts, designing brand-safe but founder-forward films, and orchestrating a content cascade across every major social channel. Their internal team worked like a creative agency, writing, producing, and curating every detail.

For other marketers watching from the sidelines, this IPL season offered a new playbook: trust your audience enough to talk about what they care about. And sometimes, that means getting out of the way.

Razorpay has always been founder-first. It’s in the brand’s DNA. Every product, feature and update is built with one question in mind: will this help a founder build better, faster, bolder? That belief shaped the campaign too.

“For us, this was never a one-off campaign - it was just the first step. The first of many bold moves to celebrate the spirit of entrepreneurship in India. Founders are building the future of this country, and they deserve to be seen, heard, and championed at scale. And we’re just getting started,” states Sethi.

Razorpay could have spent crores reminding us about its fintech tools. Instead, it chose to remind India what startups really are: ambition, grit, and vision in human form.

Turns out, the boldest move a brand can make... is not making it about the brand at all.