Skydo, India’s leading cross-border payments platform for Enterprises, MSMEs, and freelancers, has secured USD 5 million in a pre-Series A funding round led by existing investor Elevation Capital. The funds will enable Skydo to rapidly scale operations and continue to strengthen its risk monitoring and compliance. This is in line with Skydo's mission of saving Indian businesses $1 billion in FX fees over the next 3 years.

Cross-border payment solutions face two major challenges: high transaction costs and long settlement durations. With the average cost of receiving inward remittances at 3 -10%, businesses experience critical issues such as disrupted cash flow, reduced profit margins, and increased debt. It is estimated that in 2020 alone, Indian exporters lost over $3bn to foreign exchange fees as per a study done by Capital Economics. 

To transform this landscape for India’s fast-growing SMB exporters, Skydo offers a unique transparent flat-fee pricing model that provides real-time currency exchange rates, no processing fees, and zero FX mark-up costs.  The fintech’s international payment solution simplifies the payment process and ensures that businesses can save up to 80% of their forex transaction costs when dealing with international clients. 

Skydo currently processes payments for over 6,000 Indian SMB exporters and has processed payments of USD 100+ million since its inception. Skydo’s platform is powered by technology that connects six global banks and multiple international payment systems seamlessly, enabling customers to collect payments in 32 currencies from key markets such as the US, UK, Canada, Europe, Singapore, and the UAE, which account for 80-90% of remittance inflows into India. 

“We are excited to build Skydo at a time when India's manufacturing and services exports are growing at an unprecedented rate and help small businesses scale globally. As India targets USD 2 trillion in exports by 2030 and the gig economy continues to expand, we're focused on making cross-border payments as cost-effective as possible. Skydo's USP is putting our customer at the centre of a radically transparent, simple and convenient platform to receive international payments,” said Srivatsan Sridhar, Co-Founder and CEO, Skydo.

Skydo was founded in 2022 by Srivatsan Sridhar, former head of business at OLA, and Movin Jain, former head of Payments Product at PhonePe. Leveraging the founders' extensive experience and understanding of the intricacies in exports and payments, Skydo’s payments platform tackles the significant payment-related challenges faced by Indian exporters and freelancers in managing international payments. 

“We are grateful for the continued belief of Elevation Capital in our mission to power India's export growth through seamless cross-border payments. This investment will help us acquire payment licenses across geographies, expand internationally, and enable customers to send and receive business payments across multiple countries,” Sridhar added. 

Skydo’s tech-led platform offers innovative services such as real-time tracking of cross-border payments, allowing customers to monitor the entire payment journey. It supports various payment methods, including payment links, cards, and bank transfers. The platform's savings calculator provides freelancers and exporters with insights into the hidden costs of foreign transactions. As a comprehensive accounts receivable management platform, Skydo streamlines the process of receiving international payments and managing compliance, making it seamless and hassle-free.

"We want entrepreneurs to focus on growing their businesses, not on chasing payments or managing compliance. Over the past year, Skydo has achieved 10x growth. Our goal is to empower exporters and enterprises to operate seamlessly on a global scale, aiming to process USD 750 million by 2025," said Movin Jain, Co-Founder, Skydo. 

Talking about the investment, Mridul Arora, Partner, Elevation Capital said, "Skydo has demonstrated remarkable growth and a clear vision in transforming cross-border payments. Their innovative approach and commitment to being transparent and efficient are exactly what the market needs. We are confident that Skydo will drive significant improvements in how businesses handle international transactions and deliver unmatched value for SMBs and enterprises. We look forward to supporting them in their mission to streamline global financial operations and set new benchmarks in the payments sector."

Skydo has previously raised USD 5.2 million in a seed round led by Elevation Capital in 2022.

Operating under the RBI’s OPGSP (Online Payment Gateway Service Provider) framework, which currently serves as the primary payment method for over 300,000 MSME exporters across India, Skydo has also applied for the Cross-Border Payment Aggregator (PA-CB) license from the RBI. 

About Skydo

Skydo is a fintech startup based out of Bangalore on a mission to make cross-border B2B payments hassle-free & reduce forex charges for businesses by more than 50%.

By partnering with leading banks across the globe, Skydo provides businesses and freelancers with their own foreign virtual accounts for receiving payments - without any taxation or compliance burdens. Businesses can sign up in just a few minutes through Skydo’s online dashboard, allowing them to grow their export business without the hassles typically associated with receiving payments.

For more information on Skydo, please visit: https://www.skydo.com/

To know more about our story, visit: https://www.skydo.com/blog/the-story-of-skydo

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