Inside Juspay: A Sneak Peek of Our Tech, Systems & Culture

Summary

JP is revolutionizing online commerce with its innovative payment platforms, processing 100 million transactions daily. The company's founder, Vimal, shares how JP tackled India’s unreliable payment system, contributing to the success of UPI. JP's in-house engineered frameworks, like Presto and Jpace Studio, power seamless cross-platform experiences and personalized merchant payment pages. With Hyperswitch, JP expands globally, focusing on performance, community-driven growth, and open-source payment systems. The company also looks to AI for human augmentation to enhance engineering productivity. JP seeks passionate innovators who thrive on solving complex problems and creating impactful solutions.

Takeaways

• 😀 JP is a leader in building the foundational products and platforms for online commerce, handling 100 million transactions daily and processing $500 billion in annual transactions.
• 😀 JP's involvement in UPI (Unified Payments Interface) has been crucial, with 25% of India's UPI transactions being processed through their systems.
• 😀 The company has developed a framework called Presto, which powers scalable payment systems like UPI and the Beam app, allowing for seamless online payments across multiple platforms.
• 😀 Functional programming, including languages like HCLL and Rust, is a key part of JP's engineering philosophy, enabling reliable, stable systems at scale.
• 😀 JP's Presto framework helps streamline cross-platform development by enabling developers to write code once for iOS, Android, and web platforms simultaneously.
• 😀 The company has created an in-house customization tool called JPace Studio, allowing merchants to tailor the look and feel of their payment pages without compromising their brand identity.
• 😀 JP’s SDK, which powers checkout pages for top merchants, has over 1.5 billion installs and is engineered to be lean and reliable, ensuring that it doesn't degrade app performance or cause crashes.
• 😀 JP's global expansion is driven by the creation of Hyperswitch, an open-source payment switch inspired by Linux, aimed at enabling payments in international markets.
• 😀 Hyperswitch is built on performance, reliability, and agility, using system software like Rust, and is guided by an open-core model and community-driven growth.
• 😀 JP is expanding into B2B payments, credit systems, and AI-driven solutions for enhancing human productivity within their engineering teams, aiming to develop AI tools to augment their creators and engineers.

Q & A

What fundamental products and platforms does JP focus on building?

JP builds the foundational products and platforms that make online commerce viable and successful, handling 100 million transactions daily, totaling an annual DPV of 500 billion USD.

What significant milestone did JP achieve in terms of transaction handling in India?

JP processes 25% of India's UPI transactions, which is a major achievement in the Indian payment ecosystem.

What was the state of payments in India when JP started, and how did they improve it?

When JP started, payments in India were unreliable with success rates of around 40-50%. JP's innovation, particularly in UPI, has significantly improved the success rate and made online payments frictionless and secure.

What key framework did JP develop to solve the challenges of handling millions of transactions?

JP developed the Presto framework, which allows them to build and deploy efficient, scalable systems for handling millions of transactions daily.

What is the role of functional programming in JP's engineering solutions?

Functional programming languages like HCL and Rust were adopted by JP to provide malleability, expressiveness, and stability, enabling them to solve complex engineering problems and handle massive transaction volumes.

How does Presto help in creating cross-platform payment experiences?

Presto is a cross-platform native UI framework developed by JP, allowing developers to write code once that automatically translates into native iOS, Android, and web platforms, streamlining development and ensuring a seamless user experience.

Why did JP choose to build its own cross-platform framework instead of using existing solutions?

JP built its own cross-platform framework, Presto, in-house to ensure that the SDK size remained within preferred limits, while also maintaining a lean and reliable codebase without compromising quality.

What challenge does JP face in terms of merchant payment page customization, and how do they address it?

JP faces the challenge of making payment pages look unique for each merchant, ensuring they blend with the merchant's app theme. This is achieved through the Jpace Studio, a framework that allows merchants to adjust nearly 4,000 customization options.

What is the significance of JP's SDK in the payment ecosystem?

JP's SDK has over 1.5 billion installs across various apps and platforms. It is crucial for ensuring smooth and reliable payment experiences for merchants and users without causing app crashes or degrading performance.

What is Hyperswitch, and how does it contribute to the global payments market?

Hyperswitch is an open-source payment switch developed by JP for the global market, operating on the open core principle. It aims to provide a unified layer for payments, similar to UPI, but for the international market, empowering developers with freedom and flexibility.

How does JP envision the role of AI in their engineering solutions in the future?

JP sees AI playing a major role in augmenting the abilities of their engineers. They are working on building custom AI software that will help their creators and developers work more efficiently, driving innovation in the payment systems they develop.

What are some of the future areas JP is focusing on in the payment ecosystem?

JP is focusing on expanding into B2B payments, PHOBs, and credit systems. They are also working on building open systems around credit, which is expected to manifest in the near future.

How does JP define its approach to innovation and engineering culture?

JP encourages both 'why' thinkers, who question and deconstruct, and 'doers', who execute without questioning. They believe in deep engineering solutions and innovation, with a strong focus on collaboration and a mindset of continuous improvement.