Venlo relaunches payment platform for freelancers & businesses in India

By Gloria Mathias

Venlo, a cross-border payments product has relaunched its platform enabling businesses, freelancers, creators, and remote teams in India to accept global payments in a simpler, frictionless, and cost-effective manner.

In April, Venlo, which is available on both iOS & Android, is backed by multistage accelerator fund 9Unicorns. It was launched to enable international travellers to make UPI payments in India and has now pivoted to ease the burden on the growing number of freelancers, creators, and small & medium businesses in receiving payments from global clients.

“Despite the massive disruption in the banking and financial services, accepting payments from global clients is still a challenge, where the freelance economy, exports segment is burgeoning. With Venlo our aim is to make all cross-border payments simple, fast, and affordable,” said Kushal Prakash, Founder Venlo.   

The process of accepting payments from global clients through the traditional wire/SWIFT methods are cumbersome and slow. The process requires significant paperwork and payments take longer to be credited, even though they are released on time.

Venlo provides a smoother experience by setting up a dedicated USD collection account. This account can be linked to any existing INR account and users have the flexibility to convert to the local currency with convenience. A simple transfer between the accounts can credit the funds from the USD collection accounts to the INR account.

Venlo enables recipients to save at least 50% on average on each transaction. Funds are transferred in one business day, with the inward remittances’ advice or E-FIRA received in the Venlo inbox after settlement. Clients in the US can make payments via local rails such as ACH or FedWire.

The product also offers a Global SWIFT account for inward remittances from 140 countries which is faster and cost-effective than the traditional SWIFT method. Collection accounts in EUR & GBP will soon be enabled.