These 5 startups are using AI to transform cross-border payments for Indian exporters

For decades, sending money across borders has been a slow, frustrating task—delayed settlements, limited transparency, and complex compliance checks. But that is changing fast. 

A new generation of fintech platforms is using artificial intelligence (AI) to transform this experience by deploying tools like real-time KYC, anomaly detection, and predictive fraud monitoring to make international transactions faster, safer, and more transparent. 

In this shift, AI isn’t just an added layer—it’s becoming the core engine driving smarter, more seamless global financial infrastructure, much like how UPI revolutionised domestic payments in India. 

With regulators increasingly supportive of digital-first compliance and more SMEs entering global trade, the stage is set for AI-led cross-border payment systems to become the norm, shrinking settlement times from days to minutes.

Here are five AI-led startups and platforms reshaping cross-border payments.

Skydo

Founded in 2022 by Srivatsan Sridhar and Movin Jain, Bengaluru-based Skydo is reimagining cross-border payments with AI at its core. The platform streamlines KYC/KYB compliance by automatically extracting data from bank statements, validating business registration documents, and processing export-import contracts—reducing manual verification time from hours to minutes. 

The startup also has an AI-powered risk engine for detecting anomalous transactions and flagging suspicious patterns like unusual payment amounts, irregular timing, or mismatched sender-receiver profiles, achieving 95% accuracy while minimising false positives.

“Manual verification of transactions and customer details has always been time-consuming and error-prone,” says Movin Jain, Co-founder of Skydo. 

“AI changes the game by automating risk assessments, customising onboarding for different segments, and accelerating compliance checks by screening signups against sanctions lists and detecting anomalies in KYB/KYC data.”

Beyond payments, Skydo leverages AI for smarter sales development and customer support, deploying AI voice bots for multilingual customer queries and automated lead qualification, enabling 24/7 support across time zones.

Xflow

Founded by Anand Balaji and Ashwin Bhatnagar in 2021, XFlow simplifies cross-border payments for everyone—from freelancers to small and medium enterprises and large enterprises—in a compliant and regulatory manner.

“The AI powered engine analyses hundreds of economic indicators, thousands of news headlines, and FX market trends to deliver clear, actionable insights in human-readable form. This allows businesses to set their own target FX rates and maximise earnings on every dollar - removing guesswork and empowering smarter & data backed financial decisions,” says Anand Balaji, Co-founder and CEO, Xflow. 

PayGlocal

Founded in 2021 by former Visa executives Prachi Dharani, Rohit Sukhija, and Yogesh Lokhande, PayGlocal enables merchants to accept payments from global customers in the currency of their choice and using their own credit and debit cards. 

The Bengaluru-based startup has partnered with both private and public sector banks to accept international payments in over 100 currencies.

“At PayGlocal, we’ve built one of the industry-first privacy-first compliance protocols, tailored for Indian businesses scaling globally. Our AI engine automates jurisdiction- specific checks across 50+ parameters—from cyber hygiene to sanctions and behavioral risk, while ensuring the decisions made, are with better human intention and context where it matters,” says Yogesh Lokhande, Co-founder & CTO, PayGlocal.

“This hybrid model reduces compliance delays, enables faster settlements, and builds trust without compromising data privacy. In a world where speed, security, and regulation must go hand in hand, this is how we help Indian merchants scale globally with confidence,” he adds. 

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Infinity

Founded by siblings Sourav and Sidharth Choraria, Bengaluru-based Infinity aims to transform cross-border transactions for Indian small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

Infinity’s platform is built for a wide range of businesses—from SaaS startups managing payouts to companies sending vendor payments back home. 

With over 250 exporters already on board, the startup is also exploring additional features, including investment solutions for idle cash.

The company’s banking and payments platform offers international money transfers that are “70% cheaper than traditional methods,” while also letting businesses earn income on idle cash by investing in government securities, the founders told YourStory in an earlier interaction.

BRISKPE

Founded by former bankers Sanjay Tripathy, Nilesh Pathak, and Indunath Chaudhury in January 2023, Mumbai-based BRISKPE simplifies cross-border transactions for MSMEs by allowing them to sign up, link their Indian bank accounts, and raise invoices.

The platform automates payment tracking and communication, and the money is credited to Indian bank accounts within one day. It has collaborated with YES BANK and operates under RBI's OPGSP framework and holds a Money Service Business licence in Canada.

“At BRISKPE, we are harnessing this power to reimagine cross-border payments for Indian MSMEs, making them faster, safer, and more affordable than ever before. Our platform supports multiple payment modes, including account-to-account, card, and wallet-based collections, all backed by AI-driven compliance, advanced fraud detection, and real-time tracking,” says Nilesh Pathak, Co-founder and Chief Product & Technology Officer (CPTO) of BRISKPE 

“With instant KYC and dynamic risk profiling, we remove friction while ensuring security. This AI-first approach enables payments to settle within 24 hours at a very competitive fee, empowering exporters, freelancers, and entrepreneurs to scale globally with confidence,” he adds.