In this exclusive interaction, Rajeev Ranjan, Editor at Digital Terminal, speaks with Anand Balaji, Co-founder and CEO of Xflow. Anand shares what inspired him to launch Xflow, how the platform is using AI and deep product thinking to simplify international payments, and why trust, compliance, and customer obsession lie at the heart of modernizing global commerce.
Rajeev: After leading Stripe’s India operations and having experience at global giants like Amazon and Microsoft, what inspired you to start Xflow and focus specifically on cross-border B2B payments?
Anand: Having spent over two decades building products and businesses across global companies like Amazon and Stripe, I had the opportunity to deeply understand how payment systems evolve and how impactful they can be when done right. During my time at Stripe, I closely observed the friction Indian B2B merchants faced while managing cross-border payments—delays, lack of visibility, unpredictable costs, and compliance headaches. The gap between how seamless local payments had become and how broken international payments remained was staggering. This contrast—and hearing it directly from customers—was the trigger. I realized this space needed reimagination, not incremental fixes. That insight became the foundation for Xflow.
Rajeev: Cross-border B2B payments have traditionally been slow, opaque, and expensive. How is Xflow reimagining this space to make global commerce smoother and more accessible for businesses of all sizes?
Anand: At Xflow, we are rethinking every element of the cross-border payment experience from first principles. We focus on transparency, speed, and control. For example:
Speed: We settle funds into any Indian bank account, typically by the next business day—often faster.
Clarity: Customers know their FX rates before they transact, so there's no guesswork on how much INR they'll receive.
Accessibility: We support 26 global currencies and have no transaction limits, unlike other platforms.
Transparency: We built a public cost calculator where anyone—not just our customers—can benchmark what they’re currently being charged.
Integrations: We’ve created plug-and-play options that make cross-border finance less painful - we are currently serving more than 20 platforms including Drip Capital, XPay & Savedesk by enabling seamless cross-border transactions for their users
Our goal is simple: make global payments feel like local ones.
Rajeev: With backing from top-tier investors like Lightspeed, General Catalyst, Square Peg, and Stripe, how do you plan to leverage this support to scale Xflow’s reach and capabilities?
Anand: Our investors bring more than just capital—they bring experience scaling global fintech infrastructure, strong strategic guidance, and access to a network of global partners and customers. With their backing, we’re doubling down on:
Expanding our product suite beyond payments to include compliance, tax, FX risk management, and treasury tools.
Building globally: We’ve already started the process of applying for licenses in new geographies to serve businesses outside India.
Hiring world-class talent across product, engineering, compliance, and customer experience.
We’re still early, but this support helps us build with confidence and long-term vision.
Rajeev: How is Xflow integrating emerging technologies like AI, machine learning, or blockchain (if any) into its payment infrastructure to enhance speed, transparency, and compliance?
Anand: The advancements in LLM over the last 12 months is definitely game changing. I will give you an example. While it was always possible to read and extract information from invoices in theory, doing it with high accuracy and low latency for complex cross-border invoices at scale was a challenge. We have now developed a module that is built on Meta’s Llama 70B Instruct that can not only accurately extract information from complex invoices, but also helps us truly understand the invoice.
We can now answer things like what is the nature of the transaction? Is the billed entity an individual or a business? Is there any involvement of sanctioned countries or individuals in the transaction? When it comes to cross-border transactions, these are all critical considerations for compliance which often require SME intervention. Our ability to decipher invoices within a few seconds dramatically improves the speed of payments for our users, and helps us keep our cost low. We have also built features which can interpret complex financial documents like foreign inward remittance certificates (FIRC). We can now tell our users the approximate FX fees that were charged on their past transactions, bringing in much needed transparency to an opaque aspect of cross-border transactions.
Rajeev: What are the biggest challenges in modernizing the international payments infrastructure, especially in emerging markets like India, and how is Xflow tackling them?
Anand: The biggest challenges include:
Regulatory complexity: Compliance around FEMA, taxation, and documentation varies significantly and can be intimidating for businesses. We’ve built regulatory workflows into our product so customers don’t need to guess or hire expensive consultants.
Trust: Businesses moving millions of dollars are understandably cautious. Given we are challenging the traditional setup, we had to earn that trust repeatedly. Working with large financial institutions and ensuring world-class infrastructure has helped us cross that hurdle.
Awareness: Many customers weren’t even aware of how much they were being charged on their existing setups. That’s why we created tools like the cost calculator—to help users see the difference for themselves.
Modernizing this space is as much about education and trust as it is about tech. And we’re investing in all three.
Rajeev: With your diverse experience in scaling global businesses, what leadership lessons have stayed with you while building a startup like Xflow from the ground up?
Anand: There are a few enduring lessons:
Customer-first always: Whether at Amazon, Stripe, or now Xflow, starting from the user's pain point and working backward remains non-negotiable.
Think rigorously, move fast: Speed matters—but only when paired with thoughtful decision-making.
Hire people with skin in the game: Building a strong, independent, and collaborative team has been foundational.
Culture is strategy: Early on, we defined the cultural primitives we wanted—trust, transparency, high ownership, over-communication and thinking big. These aren’t buzzwords—they’re how we operate daily.
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