Xflow, an Indian fintech startup, has secured backing from each Stripe and PayPal Ventures in a $16.6 million funding spherical. The funding comes as the corporate works to carve out a place in cross-border B2B funds, a market nonetheless dominated by banks and handbook processes.
The Sequence A spherical was led by Common Catalyst, with participation from present traders Sq. Peg, Stripe, Lightspeed, and Moore Capital, whereas PayPal Ventures joined as a brand new backer. The all-equity spherical values the Bengaluru-based startup at $85 million post-investment and brings its complete funding to greater than $32 million so far.
Regardless of fast digitization in home funds, cross-border B2B transfers for Indian exporters stay closely reliant on banks, typically with restricted visibility into charges, settlement timelines, and the ultimate quantity obtained in rupees. The friction is especially acute for bigger exporters shifting thousands and thousands of {dollars} into India to fund salaries and native operations, creating a gap for fintech infrastructure gamers reminiscent of Xflow that promise higher transparency and velocity in worldwide cash motion.
Based in 2021, Xflow supplies cross-border fee infrastructure for companies starting from exporters and SaaS corporations to platforms and freelancers, enabling them to gather worldwide funds, handle international alternate, and settle funds in India.
“Cross-border B2B funds have been caught in a special age in comparison with UPI,” co-founder Anand Balaji (pictured above, middle) stated in an interview, referring to India’s broadly used prompt home funds community, the Unified Funds Interface.
Balaji, who beforehand helped construct out Stripe’s India enterprise, based Xflow with former Stripe colleagues Ashwin Bhatnagar (pictured above, proper) and Abhijit Chandrasekaran (pictured above, left).
Final 12 months, Xflow stated it enabled Indian companies to gather funds from greater than 100 international locations in over 25 currencies. It processed near $1 billion in annualized cross-border fee quantity final 12 months, marking roughly 10-fold progress from the identical interval in 2024, Balaji instructed TechCrunch.
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In keeping with the corporate, its buyer base has expanded to about 15,000 companies spanning SaaS corporations, international functionality facilities (that are offshore items that multinationals function in India), IT companies exporters, freelancers, and fintech platforms.
Transaction sizes range broadly by section, with international functionality facilities averaging about $1 million to $2 million per transaction, items exporters round $30,000 to $40,000, and freelancers roughly $3,000, in line with Balaji.
Xflow is positioning itself as a funds infrastructure supplier slightly than a direct funds software, providing APIs that permit platforms and exporters to embed cross-border cash motion into their very own merchandise.
“We didn’t wish to construct the subsequent Clever — we wish to energy the subsequent thousand Wises,” Balaji stated.
The startup has additionally launched an AI-based international alternate device to assist finance groups optimize the timing of foreign money conversions. Xflow says the function has generated incremental positive aspects for some clients via data-driven international alternate selections.
The device permits companies to set goal conversion charges slightly than accepting prevailing financial institution quotes. Balaji likened the function to restrict orders in buying and selling — directions to purchase or promote solely at a specified worth.
“What we’ve added is the prediction layer and the power to truly set a restrict order,” he stated. The mannequin presently supplies a three-day forecast with about 92% confidence, Balaji stated, although TechCrunch couldn’t independently confirm that determine.
Xflow faces competitors from banks that also dominate giant cross-border B2B transfers, in addition to fintech gamers reminiscent of Clever, Payoneer, and Skydo on the decrease finish of the market. However Balaji stated the startup’s give attention to high-value transactions and API-led infrastructure differentiates it from many rivals.
The startup plans to deploy the brand new capital towards constructing further merchandise on prime of its core funds infrastructure and securing regulatory licenses in new markets, Balaji stated. Xflow is getting ready to roll out import capabilities within the coming months and is pursuing licenses in markets together with Singapore, whereas already holding a funds license in Canada, even because it stays targeted on India as its main market.
Xflow stated it has additionally obtained closing authorization from the Reserve Financial institution of India for a Cost Aggregator–Cross Border (PA-CB) license protecting each exports and imports. The startup has signed platform partnerships with Easebuzz and Drip Capital to embed its cross-border capabilities into their choices.
Backing from Stripe and PayPal Ventures, Balaji stated, has helped strengthen the startup’s credibility with banking and regulatory companions, even because it continues to work with a number of fee suppliers commercially.
The startup presently has about 65 workers because it scales its cross-border infrastructure enterprise.
