Skydo

What is Skydo?

Skydo is a cross-border payments platform built specifically for Indian businesses that get paid by overseas clients — exporters, IT and software service firms, agencies, and freelancers. Instead of routing money through an expensive SWIFT wire or a percentage-based wallet, Skydo gives you foreign-currency virtual accounts (USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, AUD, AED, SGD). Your client pays into a local account as if paying a domestic supplier, and the money settles into your Indian bank account in 24–48 hours, at the real exchange rate, with the compliance paperwork already done.

The model is deliberately simple: Skydo charges a flat fee per payment rather than skimming a percentage, and it does not add a margin on the exchange rate. It is RBI-authorised as a Payment Aggregator – Cross Border (PA-CB), settles through HDFC Bank, is ISO 27001 certified, and is used by 40,000+ Indian exporters across 150+ countries. For a service exporter sending five-figure invoices, the flat fee plus zero markup is the difference between losing 1–2% of every payment and losing a fixed $29.

Why getting paid from abroad is broken for Indians

If you have ever received an international payment as an Indian freelancer or business, you know the three taxes nobody advertises. First, the percentage cut: wallets and marketplaces shave 1–4% off the top, and that slice grows with every rupee you earn. Second, the FX markup: the “rate” you are quoted is usually 1–2% worse than the real mid-market rate, an invisible margin baked into the conversion. Third, the compliance tax: chasing your bank for a FIRA, decoding SWIFT charges, and reconciling what landed against what was invoiced — hours of unpaid admin per payment.

Skydo’s entire design answers those three taxes one by one. The flat fee kills the percentage cut. The mid-market rate kills the FX markup. The instant, free FIRA kills the compliance tax. None of these is a gimmick — they are the exact line items that quietly erode an exporter’s margin.

Skydo at a glance

How Skydo pricing actually works

Skydo’s pricing is three bands. As advertised in 2026 you pay a flat $19 up to $2,000, a flat $29 from $2,000 to $10,000, and 0.3% above $10,000 (custom pricing past $100K/month) — plus GST, with the exchange at the mid-market rate and no added FX margin. Because the fee is fixed in dollars, your effective cost drops as invoices grow — the opposite of how percentage rails behave.

Skydo vs Infinity vs Wise vs Payoneer

The honest comparison is about fee structure, not brand. Percentage rails are fine for small, occasional payments; they get expensive precisely when your business is doing well and invoices grow.

On a single $10,000 export invoice, a 2% all-in cost is $200 and a flat 0.5% is $50; Skydo caps it at $29. Across a year of retainers and milestones, the gap is real money — which is exactly why high-ticket exporters gravitate to the flat-dollar model.

FIRA, LUT, and why compliance is the quiet dealbreaker

For Indian service exporters the FIRA (Foreign Inward Remittance Advice) is not optional paperwork — it is the proof that foreign currency actually entered India, needed for GST treatment, LUT-based zero-rated exports, and clean books at audit. With a traditional bank, getting a FIRA can mean emails, branch visits, and delays; Wise charges around $2.50 per certificate. Skydo issues it instantly and free for every payment, downloadable from the dashboard.

The knock-on benefit is calmer year-end reconciliation: every receipt maps to an invoice, the rate is the verifiable mid-market rate, and the FIRA is already on file. Compliance done well is invisible — and that invisibility is precisely the product.

A worked example: what Skydo saves over a year

Numbers make the case better than adjectives. Picture a software consultancy in Pune that bills $8,000 a month to a single US client — a fairly ordinary services-export profile. On a percentage rail charging an all-in 2% (fee plus a typical 1% FX markup), that is $160 per payment, or $1,920 a year, quietly skimmed off the top. Through Skydo the same payment costs a flat $29 — $348 a year — at the mid-market rate. The annual difference is roughly $1,570, before you count the per-FIRA charges and the hours saved on reconciliation.

Scale that to a firm with three such clients and the saving clears $4,500 a year — real budget for a contractor, a conference, or a month of runway. The point is not that Skydo is marginally cheaper; it is that percentage-based costs compound silently with every successful month, and a flat fee simply doesn’t. Skydo’s own customers report savings in the ballpark of ₹10,000 per transaction and well over ₹1,00,000 annually versus banks.

Security & regulatory standing

Moving money across borders is only worth doing on rails you can trust. Skydo holds RBI authorisation as a Payment Aggregator – Cross Border (PA-CB) — the specific licence India introduced to regulate exactly this kind of service — settles through HDFC Bank, and is ISO 27001 certified for information security. Funds move through regulated banking infrastructure rather than being held loosely, and every transaction produces an auditable FIRA. For a business whose books get scrutinised at GST and income-tax time, that regulatory clarity is not a nice-to-have — it is the baseline for using any cross-border tool at all.

Eligibility & what you need

How to claim the $30 offer and get started

1. Open the offer link — use the button on this page to start signup with the $30 new-user discount applied.
2. Create your account — register your business or freelance profile and complete KYC — standard for any regulated payment service. Setup takes ~5 minutes.
3. Get your collection accounts — receive virtual USD/EUR/GBP (and more) account details to share with clients or add to invoices.
4. Invoice and get paid — your client pays locally; funds settle to your Indian bank at the mid-market rate within 24–48 hours, FIRA auto-generated.

The deal stack — what to pair it with

Skydo handles getting paid. Pair it with the rest of a lean export back office:

• Invoicing: an invoicing tool — send branded invoices with your Skydo account details baked in.
• Accounting: accounting software — reconcile foreign receipts and FIRA docs at filing.
• Multi-currency account: Infinity — a flat-0.5% account that wins on your smaller invoices — many exporters use both.
• Payments: other payment tools — compare Stripe, Payrix, and more for online checkout.

Who should not use Skydo

Skydo is the wrong call if you mostly receive small payments — at $300 a pop, $19 is ~6%, and a flat-0.5% account like Infinity costs less. It is also not a spend account: there is no card or outbound bill-pay, so if you need to pay foreign vendors, pair it with an account that does. And because it is purpose-built for Indian residents, it is not the right fit if you bill from outside India.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Skydo best for?

Indian exporters, IT/software service firms, agencies, and freelancers who invoice overseas clients — especially anyone billing more than ~$5,000 per invoice, where the flat $29 fee massively undercuts percentage rails.

How much does Skydo cost?

As advertised in 2026: a flat $19 up to $2,000, $29 for $2,000–$10,000, and 0.3% above $10,000, plus GST. No setup or monthly fee. Always confirm the current rate at signup.

Does Skydo add an FX markup?

No — Skydo converts at the live mid-market (interbank) rate with zero forex margin. That is where most rivals hide an extra 1–2%, so on conversion alone Skydo is usually cheaper.

What is FIRA and is it free?

FIRA (Foreign Inward Remittance Advice) is the proof-of-receipt document Indian exporters need for GST/LUT and audit. Skydo generates it instantly and free for every payment; some rivals charge per FIRA.

How is Skydo different from Infinity?

Skydo charges a flat dollar fee ($19/$29), so it wins on larger invoices; Infinity charges a flat 0.5%, which is cheaper on smaller invoices. Roughly above ~$5,800 Skydo is cheaper; below it, Infinity is.

How fast is settlement?

Skydo typically converts and deposits funds into your Indian bank account within 24–48 hours, with real-time tracking at each step.

Verdict

For Indian exporters and freelancers invoicing more than a few thousand dollars at a time, Skydo’s flat dollar fee mathematically beats every percentage-based rail — and the instant, free FIRA removes the biggest compliance headache of getting paid from abroad.

For the target user — an Indian exporter or freelancer invoicing meaningful amounts — Skydo is close to a no-brainer: the flat fee, zero FX markup, and instant free FIRA attack the three costs that matter, and the $30 new-user discount lowers the cost of trying it to almost nothing. Pair it with invoicing and accounting and you have a lean, compliant, low-cost way to get paid by the world.

Get $30 off Skydo → — New users only. Pricing and offer subject to Skydo’s current terms — verify at signup.