Skydo Raises $10M to Fix India’s Broken Cross-Border Payments Engine — And Power a USD 2 Trillion Export Dream

For years, India’s exporters — from solo freelancers in tier-2 cities to fast-growing SaaS startups in Bengaluru and D2C brands shipping worldwide — have shared the same frustration: getting paid from abroad is far harder than selling abroad.

A designer in Indore waits days for a $500 invoice to land. A software startup in Noida loses 5–7% of its revenue to unclear forex markups. A manufacturing MSME in Coimbatore burns weeks on compliance paperwork just to prove that an inbound payment is legitimate.

In a country racing toward a USD 2 trillion export target by FY30, this broken system has long been an invisible brake.

And that is the gap Skydo, a Bengaluru-born cross-border payments platform, has set out to fix — now backed with fresh firepower.

A $10 Million Push Toward Global-First Infrastructure

Skydo has raised USD 10 million in Series A funding, led by Susquehanna Asia Venture Capital, with participation from existing investor Elevation Capital.

Serving 30,000+ Indian MSMEs, freelancers, and startups, the company processes payments in 32+ currencies across 50+ Indian cities — positioning itself as one of the fastest-growing players in India’s emerging fintech infrastructure space.

What’s notable is that Skydo is also one of the first fintechs to receive the Reserve Bank of India’s In-Principle authorisation as a Payment Aggregator – Cross Border (PA-CB), a regulatory milestone for anyone attempting to rebuild the cross-border payments stack.

A Painful Reality for Exporters — And a Massive Opportunity

India’s export engine is expanding faster than ever. Lakhs of MSMEs, digital freelancers, creative studios, SaaS companies, manufacturing units, and service providers are now exporting to the world.

But the money flow — the most crucial link — remains shockingly inefficient.

Typical exporters lose 3–7% of their earnings to hidden forex markups and opaque fees. Payments can take days to arrive, and compliance documentation — FIRA, reporting, reconciliation — often drags into weeks or months.

Traditional banks are slow and fee-heavy. Global platforms like PayPal, Wise, and Payoneer, while widely used, aren’t built for Indian exporters’ regulatory or pricing realities — with some fees cutting into as much as 10% of the invoice value.

This is where Skydo steps in.

Skydo’s Pitch: A Financial OS for Indian Exporters

Skydo wants to be the financial operating system powering Indian exporters' global commerce.

Here’s what its platform already offers:

• Local payment collection from clients in multiple countries

• Zero forex markups and transparent flat-fee pricing

• 24-hour settlements, dramatically shrinking working capital cycles

• Instant FIRA and documentation

• Invoicing, payment reminders, and accounting integrations built in

For users, this shift has been transformational.

“Skydo has simplified our cross-border payments and cut our finance costs dramatically,” said Sushant Yadav, founder of Optimite, a marketing agency.
“Their fixed fees and mid-market rates give us full predictability — far better than banks.”

“We’ve saved thousands of dollars since switching,” added Abhishek Agarwalla, Co-founder & CEO of Fabric.
“But what stands out most is their customer obsession — the Skydo team showed up at our office just to understand our problems. They’ve earned our trust.”

Founders’ Vision: “World-Class Infrastructure from India, for the World”

Co-founder and CEO Srivatsan Sridhar calls Indian exporters “second to none in global ambition” — and believes they deserve infrastructure that matches that ambition.

“We are building the financial OS for global commerce — from collections and payouts to card acceptance, compliance automation, and reconciliation,” Sridhar said.
“This funding fuels that mission.”

Co-founder Movin Jain added that Skydo’s rapid scale is proof that global fintech railroads can be built from India.

“India has the talent, compliance capability, and regulatory clarity to build global financial infrastructure,” he said.
“With this round, we plan to expand our footprint and secure licenses in key geographies.”

Skydo grew 4X in the past year and now targets USD 5 billion in annualized payment volume within the next two years — a bold but believable milestone for a company riding a massive structural tailwind.

Why Investors Are Betting Big

For Susquehanna Asia VC, Skydo is emerging at the right moment — as India ushers in the new PA-CB regulatory framework.

“The landscape demands players with deep technology and compliance capability,” said Bhavanipratap Rana, Investment Advisor, Susquehanna Asia VC.
“Skydo stands out by solving opacity, time delays, compliance risk, and working capital blockage — the real costs of cross-border transactions.”

Elevation Capital, an early backer, echoes the sentiment.

“Skydo has scaled 4X in just a year, building a truly customer-centric global payments powerhouse,” said Mridul Arora, Partner, Elevation Capital.
“We are excited to support their next phase of growth.”

What the New Funding Will Unlock

Skydo plans to deploy the new capital toward five major areas:

1. Geographic Expansion

Local collections in 20+ countries across Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

2. Global Licensing

Securing regulatory permissions in critical international markets.

3. Card Infrastructure

Scaling InstaLinks, enabling card acceptance for exporters at half the cost of legacy gateways.

4. Advanced Compliance Suite

Strengthening reconciliation, reporting, and back-office automation for high-volume exporters.

5. Developer-Focused APIs

APIs and webhooks allowing SaaS platforms, fintechs, and marketplaces to embed Skydo’s global payment rails inside their own products.

A Fintech Story Aligned With India’s Global Rise

Skydo’s growth is ultimately a reflection of a larger shift — India’s exporters are no longer peripheral players; they’re central to the country’s economic future.

As freelancers work with clients in New York and Berlin, as SaaS startups land enterprise deals in Europe, and as MSMEs ship to continents they’ve never visited, the need for a frictionless, transparent, India-native cross-border payment system becomes undeniable.

Skydo is betting that if India wants to hit USD 2 trillion in exports, the pipes that carry the money must be rebuilt — cleanly, fairly, and at global standards.

With this fresh $10 million, those pipes are set to get wider, faster, and far more global.

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