Indian fintech startup Xflow has secured backing from both Stripe and PayPal Ventures in a $16.6 million funding round. The investment supports the company’s efforts to establish a position in the cross-border B2B payments market, which remains dominated by banks and manual processes.
The Series A round was led by General Catalyst, with participation from existing investors Square Peg, Stripe, Lightspeed, and Moore Capital. PayPal Ventures joined as a new backer. This all-equity round values the Bengaluru-based startup at $85 million post-investment and brings its total funding to more than $32 million.
Despite rapid digitization in domestic payments, cross-border B2B transfers for Indian exporters are still heavily reliant on banks. This often means limited visibility into fees, settlement timelines, and the final amount received in rupees. The friction is particularly acute for large exporters moving millions of dollars into India to fund salaries and local operations. This creates an opening for fintech infrastructure players like Xflow, which promise greater transparency and speed in international money movement.
Founded in 2021, Xflow provides cross-border payment infrastructure for businesses ranging from exporters and SaaS firms to platforms and freelancers. It enables them to collect international payments, manage foreign exchange, and settle funds in India.
Anand Balaji, co-founder of Xflow, noted that cross-border B2B payments were stuck in a different age compared to India’s widely used instant domestic payments network, UPI. Balaji, who previously helped build Stripe’s India business, founded Xflow with former Stripe colleagues Ashwin Bhatnagar and Abhijit Chandrasekaran.
Last year, Xflow enabled Indian businesses to collect payments from more than 100 countries in over 25 currencies. The company processed close to $1 billion in annualized cross-border payment volume, marking roughly ten-fold growth from the same period in 2024.
The company’s customer base has expanded to about 15,000 businesses spanning SaaS firms, global capability centers, IT services exporters, freelancers, and fintech platforms. Transaction sizes vary widely by segment. Global capability centers average about $1 million to $2 million per transaction, goods exporters average around $30,000 to $40,000, and freelancers average roughly $3,000.
Xflow positions itself as a payments infrastructure provider rather than a direct payments application. It offers APIs that allow platforms and exporters to embed cross-border money movement into their own products. Balaji stated the goal is not to build the next Wise, but to power the next thousand such platforms.
The startup has also introduced an AI-based foreign exchange tool to help finance teams optimize the timing of currency conversions. Xflow says this feature has generated incremental gains for some customers through data-driven foreign exchange decisions. The tool allows businesses to set target conversion rates rather than accepting prevailing bank quotes, functioning similarly to limit orders in trading. The model currently provides a three-day forecast with about 92% confidence.
Xflow faces competition from banks that still dominate large cross-border B2B transfers, as well as fintech players like Wise, Payoneer, and Skydo at the lower end of the market. However, Balaji said the startup’s focus on high-value transactions and API-led infrastructure differentiates it from many rivals.
The startup plans to deploy the new capital toward building additional products on top of its core payments infrastructure and securing regulatory licenses in new markets. Xflow is preparing to roll out import capabilities in the coming months and is pursuing licenses in markets including Singapore. It already holds a payments license in Canada, while remaining focused on India as its primary market.
Xflow has also received final authorization from the Reserve Bank of India for a Payment Aggregator–Cross Border license covering both exports and imports. The startup has signed platform partnerships with Easebuzz and Drip Capital to embed its cross-border capabilities into their offerings.
Balaji said that backing from Stripe and PayPal Ventures has helped strengthen the startup’s credibility with banking and regulatory partners, even as it continues to work with multiple payment providers commercially. The startup currently has about 65 employees as it scales its cross-border infrastructure business.