UPI payment solutions for global businesses
India’s digital payments landscape has transformed rapidly, creating confusion for global businesses aiming to accept payments from Indian customers. Conventional wisdom often insists on setting up local subsidiaries, opening Indian bank accounts, or hiring extensive legal teams to comply with regulations.
However, the reality is considerably simpler, thanks to the evolution of India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and regulatory frameworks. The key is partnering with a payment provider that offers seamless API integration and built-in compliance, enabling foreign companies to tap into India’s $4 trillion economy without cumbersome setups. India’s UPI now accounts for over 80% of online transactions, making it an essential payment option for international merchants targeting Indian consumers (Razorpay, 2025).
Many founders and operators have shared their frustrations online about the complexities of starting business in India, but these challenges largely stem from outdated information. Today, a single API integration can handle all UPI payment flows, including one-time payments, recurring charges, QR code scans, and “collect requests” approved within popular apps like Google Pay.
The technology supports INR pricing, making the checkout experience feel local. Automatic retries handle issues like failed OTP deliveries, ensuring a smooth transaction process. Therefore, businesses don’t need complex tech stacks or multiple plugins—just a robust, scalable integration tailored for the Indian market.
India regulatory compliance foreign
Navigating India’s regulatory environment is a major concern for foreign businesses, but it doesn’t require hiring a local legal team or setting up an Indian entity. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) mandates strict compliance around payments, but these can be managed with a compliance-ready payments partner licensed under the RBI’s Payment Aggregator–Cross Border (PA-CB) framework.
Such partners embed compliance into their products, automating checks for local tax rules like Tax Collected at Source (TCS) and the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS), as well as anti-money laundering (AML) measures. This approach makes compliance invisible to the merchant, allowing smooth operations without delays or manual paperwork. For instance, Razorpay’s PA-CB license covers all necessary regulatory requirements and features Smart AML Screening, which proactively reviews flagged transactions and reduces AML-related settlement delays by up to two-thirds.
This level of automation not only ensures adherence to Indian law but also stabilizes cash flow by minimizing interruptions (Razorpay, 2025).
international payment solutions India bank
One of the biggest myths about entering the Indian market is the necessity of opening a local bank account. This is no longer the case.
Global businesses can receive payments made by Indian customers in INR, but settle funds directly into their overseas accounts in currencies like USD, EUR, or SGD within two business days. This eliminates the need to manage a local bank relationship and reduces the settlement waiting period that older providers typically impose. This global settlement account model simplifies cross-border money movement and keeps the merchant’s cash flow in their home currency.
It also removes the operational burden of currency conversions and local banking compliance. Razorpay offers this capability, allowing foreign businesses to collect payments from India efficiently, with fast, reliable settlement directly to their international bank accounts on a T+2 basis (Razorpay, 2025).
transparent foreign exchange management
Foreign exchange (FX) rates often introduce hidden costs that erode profit margins for businesses operating across borders. Managing these rates manually can be resource-intensive and prone to errors.
The solution is integrated FX handling within the payment platform, providing real-time visibility into conversion rates and ensuring lean spreads well below industry averages. A typical industry FX spread hovers around 3.5%, but premium providers offer rates closer to 2%, significantly reducing conversion costs. Additionally, automated reconciliation and reporting eliminate manual tracking burdens, allowing businesses to focus on growth rather than financial administration.
Razorpay’s FX engine exemplifies this approach, delivering transparent rates, low spreads, and automated processes that clearly show how much revenue is earned after currency conversion, with no surprise fees (Razorpay, 2025).
Indian market access payment aggregators
This dramatically reduces time-to-market and lowers the cost and complexity of expansion. Global brands ranging from SaaS startups to large travel companies have adopted this model, leveraging licensed payment aggregators to access the Indian consumer base effortlessly.
The elimination of the local entity requirement is a game-changer for international companies seeking rapid scale in India, one of the fastest-growing digital economies worldwide (Razorpay, 2025).
What are the first steps to integrate UPI payments into your platform?
India market entry solutions
Entering the Indian market no longer demands extensive local infrastructure or prolonged legal processes. Instead, the essentials boil down to five key capabilities: ① Seamless, scalable API integration tailored to India’s payment flows
② Embedded compliance with RBI regulations via a licensed payments partner
③ Global settlement accounts enabling cross-border fund transfers without a local bank
④ Transparent, low-cost foreign exchange management with automated reconciliation
⑤ Strong risk controls including AML screening and tax compliance automation
Avoiding the myth of needing a local entity allows businesses to move quickly and efficiently, tapping into India’s vast digital economy with over 850 million online users. UPI’s dominance in online payments means that adopting this payment method is critical to winning Indian customers.
Partnering with a proven platform like Razorpay ensures that your checkout experience is as smooth and reliable as any local brand’s, supporting rapid growth without the traditional headaches of international expansion (Razorpay, 2025).
Are you ready to offer UPI payments on your checkout and scale your business in India?
Reference: Razorpay (2025) How Global Businesses Can Offer UPI Payments to Indian Customers Without a Local Entity
