Indian fintech startup Xflow has raised $16.6 million in a Series A funding round, drawing backing from global payments giants Stripe and PayPal Ventures. The round was led by General Catalyst, with participation from Square Peg, Stripe, Lightspeed, and Moore Capital. The all-equity investment values the Bengaluru-based company at $85 million post-investment and takes its total funding to more than $32 million since its founding in 2021.
Xflow is targeting a segment that still feels outdated despite India’s rapid domestic payments revolution — cross-border B2B transfers. While UPI has transformed local transactions, international payments for exporters often remain dependent on banks, with limited transparency around fees, settlement timelines, and final rupee realizations. This pain point is particularly sharp for businesses moving millions of dollars into India for salaries and operations. Xflow aims to simplify this process by offering faster, more transparent infrastructure for global money movement.
Founded by Anand Balaji along with former Stripe colleagues Ashwin Bhatnagar and Abhijit Chandrasekaran, the company provides cross-border payment infrastructure for exporters, SaaS firms, global capability centers, IT services companies, freelancers, and fintech platforms. Last year, Xflow enabled collections from more than 100 countries in over 25 currencies and processed close to $1 billion in annualized payment volume — roughly 10-fold growth from the same period in 2024. Its customer base has expanded to about 15,000 businesses, with transaction sizes ranging from $3,000 for freelancers to $1 million to $2 million for global capability canters.
Rather than building a consumer-facing app, Xflow positions itself as an API-led infrastructure provider. As Balaji put it, the goal is not to build the next Wise but to power the next thousand Wises. The company has also launched an AI-based foreign exchange tool that allows finance teams to set target conversion rates — similar to limit orders in trading — instead of accepting standard bank quotes. The model currently offers a three-day forecast with about 92% confidence, though that figure has not been independently verified.
The startup faces competition from traditional banks and fintech players such as Wise, Payoneer, and Skydo. However, Xflow is betting on its focus on high-value transactions and embedded infrastructure to stand out. With final authorization from the Reserve Bank of India for a Payment Aggregator–Cross Border (PA-CB) license covering exports and imports, and partnerships with platforms like Easebuzz and Drip Capital, the company plans to expand into import capabilities and secure licenses in markets such as Singapore, while continuing to focus on India as its primary market. Backing from Stripe and PayPal Ventures, Balaji said, has further strengthened its credibility with banking and regulatory partners as it scales its 65-member team.
