Stripe and PayPal Ventures Bet on India’s Xflow to Solve Cross-Border B2B Payments | TechCrunch

Xstreaman Indian fintech startup, has received backing from both Stripe and PayPal Ventures in a $16.6 million funding round. The investment comes as the company works to establish a position in cross-border B2B payments, a market still 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, while PayPal Ventures joined as a new backer. The all-equity round values ​​the Bengaluru-based startup at $85 million post-investment and brings its total funding to date to over $32 million.

Despite rapid digitization of domestic payment transactionscross-border B2B transfers for Indian exporters remain highly dependent on banksoften with limited insight into the fees, payment terms and the final rupee amount received. The friction is particularly acute for larger exporters who are moving millions of dollars to India to finance salaries and local operations, creating an opening for fintech infrastructure players like Xflow, which promise greater transparency and speed in the international movement of money.

Founded in 2021, Xflow provides cross-border payments infrastructure for businesses ranging from exporters and SaaS companies to platforms and freelancers, allowing them to collect international payments, manage foreign exchange and settle funds in India.

“Cross-border B2B payments were stuck in a different era than UPI,” co-founder Anand Balaji (pictured above, center) said in an interview, referring to India’s widely used instant domestic payments network, the Unified Payments Interface.

Balaji, who previously helped build Stripe’s India business, founded Xflow with former Stripe colleagues Ashwin Bhatnagar (pictured above, right) and Abhijit Chandrasekaran (pictured above, left).

Last year, Xflow said it will enable Indian businesses to collect payments from more than 100 countries in more than 25 currencies. It processed nearly $1 billion in annualized cross-border payment volumes last year, representing about a tenfold growth from the same period in 2024, Balaji told TechCrunch.

According to the company, its customer base has expanded to around 15,000 companies, including SaaS companies, global capacity centers (which are offshore units that multinationals operate in India), IT services exporters, freelancers and fintech platforms.

The size of transactions varies widely by segment, with global capacity centers averaging about $1 million to $2 million per transaction, commodity exporters about $30,000 to $40,000, and freelancers about $3,000, according to Balaji.

Xflow positions itself as a payment infrastructure provider rather than an instant payments application, offering APIs that allow platforms and exporters to embed cross-border money movements into their own products.

“We didn’t want to build the next Magi; we want to power the next thousand Sages,” Balaji said.

The startup has also introduced an AI-based currency tool to help finance teams optimize the timing of currency conversions. Xflow says the feature has delivered additional profits for some customers through data-driven currency decisions.

The tool allows businesses to set target conversion rates instead of accepting prevailing bank rates. Balaji likened the feature to restricting trading orders: instructions to buy or sell only at a certain price.

“What we’ve added is the prediction layer and the ability to actually set a limit order,” he said. The model currently provides a three-day forecast with about 92% confidence, Balaji said, although TechCrunch could not independently verify that figure.

Xflow faces competition from banks that still dominate large cross-border B2B transfers, as well as fintech players such as Wise, Payoneer and Skydo at the lower end of the market. But Balaji said the startup’s focus on high-quality transactions and API-led infrastructure sets it apart from many rivals.

The startup plans to use the new capital to build additional products on top of its core payments infrastructure and secure regulatory licenses in new markets, Balaji said. Xflow is preparing to roll out import capabilities in the coming months and is pursuing licenses in markets such as Singapore, while it already has a payments license in Canada, even as it remains focused on India as its primary market.

Xflow said it has also received final approval from the Reserve Bank of India for a Payment Aggregator-Cross Border (PA-CB) license covering both exports and imports. The startup has signed platform partnerships with Easebuzz and Drip Capital to integrate its cross-border capabilities into their offerings.

Backing from Stripe and PayPal Ventures has helped strengthen the startup’s credibility with banking and regulatory partners, according to Balaji, even as it continues to work commercially with multiple payment providers.

The startup currently has around 65 employees as it expands its cross-border infrastructure business.