Fundraising Fox

Karbon Card

YC S21

Bengaluru, IN · Founded 2019 · 144 employees · 10 known investors

Karbon Card provides financial services for cross-border payments, including foreign payment collection and sending, corporate cards, and cloud billing optimization. The platform serves freelancers, importers, exporters, e-commerce businesses, and marketplace resellers globally.

Also known as Karbon Business · Karbon Forex

Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (S21)

Karbon Card was founded in 2019 by Pei-fu Hsieh and Bo Li.

PHPei-fu Hsieh
Pei-fu HsiehinFounderPei-fu Hsieh brings over a decade of experience in private equity and venture capital at Kleiner Perkins and 01VC, along with consulting background at McKinsey and previous roles building companies including Zalora, Easy Taxi, and Groupon through Rocket Internet. He has incubated fintech ventures across Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Latin America.
BL
Bo LiFounder

Investors · 10

Company profile

researched Aug 2026

Karbon Card, which operates under the brand Karbon Business, is a Bengaluru-based fintech serving Indian businesses with cross-border payment and expense management services. Its core offering, Karbon FX Remittances, covers both inward and outward foreign remittance for B2B payments, positioned on exchange rates and markup fees that the company states are lower than traditional banks and card services, with settlement to beneficiary accounts in four to eight hours. The company says it works only with PACB-licensed players and regulated banks for inward and outward flows, and it handles compliance elements such as A1 import payments and 15CB documentation.

Alongside remittance, Karbon offers a corporate prepaid card for expense management with real-time expense tracking, automated reporting, budget controls and cashback; a cloud discounts program that it says can reduce cloud costs by up to 60% through multiple partners without long-term lock-ins; and an AI Accountant product marketed as reducing accounting workload by 75-80%. Customer-facing content also includes a blog aimed at Indian freelancers covering topics such as W-8BEN forms for Upwork, platform tax statements and foreign tax credit Form 67.

Business model

Karbon does not charge a fee to initiate or enable a business cross-border payment; instead it states a markup fee on foreign exchange upfront, with customised rates available for higher-volume transactions. Additional products include a corporate prepaid card and access to discounted cloud services through partners.

Foreign exchange markup on cross-border remittance transactions, with pricing provided on sign-up and negotiated rates for larger volumes.

Traction

The website carries named customer testimonials from Suditi Industries Ltd., Jupiter and Newton School, describing use of Karbon for import A1 payments and consolidated foreign remittance volume.

Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography

Market position

The company positions on low transaction charges and upfront markup pricing, fast settlement to beneficiary accounts within 4-8 hours, banking partnerships with regulated banks and PACB-licensed players, digital onboarding, and handling of Indian cross-border compliance paperwork such as A1 and 15CB.

Technology

A web dashboard for managing international transactions and card spend, with real-time expense tracking, automated reporting and budget controls, plus an AI Accountant product intended to automate the majority of routine accounting tasks.

Go-to-market

Digital self-serve sign-up combined with a sales-assisted process: prospects book a demo or sign up online and a team member guides onboarding, supported by WhatsApp and email contact with foreign payment specialists and by a content and customer-testimonial-driven website.

India-based businesses of all sizes with international payment or expense management needs, including exporters, importers, agencies and consultants, freelancers, D2C e-commerce companies, and Amazon and Walmart resellers.

Geography

Headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, serving India-based businesses making and receiving payments internationally.

Compiled by commissioned research from 1 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.

Competitors · 10

by search overlap
Wise1931 shared keywordsWise is a financial platform offering international money transfers, multi-currency accounts, and debit cards with low fees and competitive exchange rates, serving millions of users globally.
Tipalti927 shared keywordsTipalti offers an AI-powered finance automation platform that handles global accounts payable, payments, procurement, expenses, and treasury operations for businesses. It supports cross-border payments to over 200 countries in 120 currencies and integrates with ERPs, accounting systems, and other business tools, serving industries such as adtech, e-commerce, gaming, healthcare, and software.
Stripe921 shared keywordsStripe provides financial infrastructure for businesses to accept payments, offer financial services, and implement custom revenue models across international markets in 135+ currencies.
Airwallex861 shared keywordsAirwallex operates a global banking platform that provides cross-border payments, financial infrastructure, and AI-powered financial software for businesses. The platform serves companies across 200+ countries, enabling automated financial operations, expense management, and billing for global enterprises and AI-native businesses.
Bill.com Holdings, Inc.721 shared keywordsBILL is a unified financial operations platform that automates accounts payable, receivables, and spend management for businesses. The platform processes over $345 billion in annual payment volume and serves nearly 500,000 customers across the US and 130+ countries.
GoCardless699 shared keywordsGoCardless provides bank payment collection and open banking data access services. The platform enables businesses to collect domestic and international payments via bank accounts and securely access customer bank account data across 2,300+ banks in the UK and Europe.
Industries681 shared keywordsJ.P. Morgan is a global financial services firm serving corporations and individuals in more than 100 countries, offering investment research, tools, data, analytics, and advisory services. It supports institutional investors, asset and fund managers, hedge funds, broker dealers, and equity issuers with liquidity, fixed income strategies, and equity compensation solutions.
Jetlore629 shared keywordsJetlore was a Palo Alto AI startup that turned unstructured retail product data into structured attributes so merchants could personalise what each shopper saw. Founded by Stanford researchers, it raised from Sierra Ventures, Alsop Louie Partners, Fenox Venture Capital, BRM Capital and Mercury Fund, and PayPal acquired it in 2018.
Razorpay618 shared keywordsRazorpay provides payment processing APIs and financial services for online merchants, schools, and ecommerce businesses, offering payment acceptance, disbursement, current accounts, and working capital loans. The company serves businesses looking to accept and manage payments online with developer-friendly integration.
Skydo592 shared keywordsSkydo provides Indian exporters with global bank accounts to receive international business payments from 150+ countries, offering zero FX margin, flat fees, and instant FIRA. It also includes GST-compliant invoicing, payment tracking, and integrations with platforms like Amazon Global Selling.

Companies competing with Karbon Card for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.

In the news

Research sources · 1

primary sources listed

1 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.

Frequently asked questions

What does Karbon Card do?
Indian fintech offering cross-border B2B remittance, corporate prepaid cards, cloud cost savings and AI accounting tools.
Who founded Karbon Card?
Karbon Card was founded by Pei-fu Hsieh, Bo Li in 2019.
Who are Karbon Card's investors?
Karbon Card's investors include 2am VC, Amino Capital, Avenir Growth Capital, DG Daiwa Ventures, Emles Venture Partners, Olive Tree Capital, Sommet AB, Y Combinator and 2 more.
Where is Karbon Card headquartered?
Karbon Card is headquartered in Bengaluru, IN.