Fintech startup Zynk has bagged $5 Mn (about INR 44 Cr) in its seed funding round led by Web3 and blockchain focussed investment firm Hivemind Capital. The round also saw participation from investors like Coinbase Ventures, Transpose Platform VC, Polymorphic Capital, Tykhe Ventures, among others.

Founded in April 2025 by ex-Woodstock Fund venture partner Prashanth Swaminathan, ex-Amazon Pay India CTO Manish Bhatia and IBC Media cofounder Abhishek Pitti, Zynk is a fintech startup that helps global payment companies make instant cross-border settlements. It charges a certain fee on either the transaction or the liquidity that is in usage, Swaminathan said.

The company plans to use the new funding to grow its international money transfer network, which currently supports currencies like the US dollar, Euro, Dirham, Indian Rupee and Peso. It will also strengthen its security and compliance systems to meet global financial rules, and partner with banks and payment firms worldwide to make cross-border transactions faster and smoother.

Zynk claims that its blockchain-based platform enables its partners to scale across borders without the friction typically associated with local licensing or establishing multiple banking relationships. “We’re the infrastructure powering fintechs, remittance providers, trading platforms, exchanges, neobanks, payroll system,” the startup said in a statement.

The development comes at a time when India is witnessing a rise in cross-border payments driven by growing global trade, the expanding gig economy, and the surge in overseas education and travel.

Since traditional systems often involve high fees, long settlement times, and regulatory complexities, fintech platforms are addressing these gaps through blockchain, AI-powered compliance tools, and digital payment infrastructure that enable real-time settlements and better tracking.

“Whenever there is a cross-border transaction, it is prone to delays in settlement because of multiple reasons, like SWIFT correspondent banking networks, liquidity crunches, and local banking delays. The way that fintechs and payment companies have overcome this is by raising capital in equity or debt and using it to pre-fund these transactions at the destination,” Swaminathan said.

He added that by maintaining large pools of capital in destination countries, fintech platforms can process settlements faster and offer exporters greater predictability in payments. This pre-funding model has become central to the new generation of cross-border payment startups in India.

Among them, Skydo recently secured a licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a Payment Aggregator–Cross Border (PA–CB) entity — allowing it to build compliant, seamless, and cost-effective payment solutions for Indian exporters.

Besides such emerging new players, fintech giants like Paytm also facilitate cross-border payments for both individuals and businesses through their UPI and payment gateway services.

Recently, the company rolled out a feature allowing Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to use their international mobile numbers to make UPI payments — a move powered by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and currently in beta across 12 countries, including the US, UK, UAE, Singapore, Australia, and Canada.

As India’s digital payment stack gains global recognition, it is also beginning to influence international players. In July, US-based PayPal partnered with NPCI International — the overseas arm of NPCI — and other partners to develop PayPal World, a global digital payments platform aimed at taking India’s interoperable payments model to the global stage by connecting systems and digital wallets across countries.

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