However, in-person-branch-verification is a big non-starter for me. It needs to be more convenient than visiting a branch. If I have to visit a branch, I might as well open an NRE account; there's an ICICI on every street. I checked your list and I don't see any Tier 2 cities. There's nothing all over Tamil Nadu and Kerala except Chennai.

So, in the absence of a 24/7 kiosk or manned counter in every major international airport (3-4 in each state), you need to have an option for pre-verification online/FaceTime/webcam or via document upload. Otherwise, the inconvenience of a branch visit negates any usefulness.

Also, why restrict the app to work only in India? I should be able to load money and withdraw money wherever. Just disable the payment part.

Unfortunately, existing regulations in India mandate a one-time physical verification before we can unlock you for a full-fledged prepaid account without applying artificial limits.

Our team is definitely looking into way to make this entire process online and as hassle-free as possible. And we're looking for ways to unblock activation directly at airports.

Will keep you posted as things develop.

> Also, why restrict the app to work only in India?

I am unsure but somewhere in the RBI regulations it says prepaid wallets are only supposed to work while customers are in India. At least that's what we've been informed by the lawyers. Hence transactions are currently disallowed from outside.

But if enough folks adopt Cheq, I am confident we can ask the government for relaxations. Technically, its super easy for us.

To get anywhere and do anything required increasingly elaborate setups and even personal password sharing between myself and new inlaws that hardly knew me.

A lot of time and money was wasted and somehow in the process I was banned from Uber for several months.

I have the same advice for you I would give to basically every other business that caters to tourists in India: charge a lot more and make it a lot more convenient. If you need in-person verification and can't get an airport kiosk, give me an option to pay $50 and have someone come to my hotel or have someone pick me up and bring me to Cheq. It's so difficult to get around before you get some kind of digital payment setup.

> charge a lot more and make it a lot more convenient.

We're trying to introduce doorstep verification services. And establishing good unit economics is definitely our current biggest problem.

50$ will make our investors very happy but then customers might complain.

Look at the pain points of customers. It is obvious they are willing to pay higher price for convenience. Anyone visiting India would not complain about $50. Especially since you say it is a one time fee for opening the account. You need to rethink your price. You can even make it an annual fee so you have consistent revenue. The current pricing model is nuts. $10 is too cheap for foreigners.

EDIT: You write elsewhere that there is a markup of 3.5% on top per transaction. Is this credit card fees or your own markup on top of the credit card fees? If it is the latter, then I would advise you against it. Rather take 1 time payment annually ($50 or even $100) instead of 3.5% markup per transaction.

A flat $30-$50 fee will easily cover for most of these costs though.

We can cover the 3.5% markup plus provide doorstep verification service to customers

Thanks for the suggestion. We'll definitely try a variant of this soon

I definitely am suggesting a higher touch service, so you're providing real value for that higher price and can keep the $10 service for the budget traveler (that would be very nice of you).

That said, there are a lot of moving parts and surprises when starting a business, so keeping it simple to start makes sense.

I just want to encourage you as someone who has suffered the pain point you're describing to think big and realize that there is a segment of your audience who is willing to really spend money if you can offer them convenience and time-savings.

FWIW your outside-of-India Uber account should Just Work™.

Eventually I tried adding an Indian friend's payment card and I got an email saying I had been banned for suspicious activity or something.

The email made it sound permanent and I never got notified of my unbanning but my Uber account now works in the US and Canada again.

This is an issue with using AliPay and WeChat Pay in China as well. If you want to access the full spectrum of services including reserving train tickets, flights, and hotels with online payments, you need to get a local SIM card and mobile phone number, and then with that plugged in and working, visit a bank branch and set up a bank account in-person. In theory you can do both of these things in the span of an hour if you go first thing in the morning, but not every bank employee knows how to open an account with a passport and sometimes you'll have to visit 2 or 3 branches until you encounter someone know knows how to do it in their system.

Mobile payments are convenient once set up but they have made the world more fragmented with every superpower country implementing its own system.

We plan to scale with doorstep verification services in the meantime.

Edit: to be more helpful, a system like this would be more exciting for me - Upload the passport in app, the passport is verified only by a salaried and background-checked (you know, like a police clearance certificate) staff that is a employee of your company (not a third party or contractor). Have a clearly written policy about record keeping, security of the storage, pursue legal charges against employees who don't adhere to privacy policy. Etc.

Companies like Wise power Remittances i.e. you can send money to a person in India from USA using their facilities.

However, this cannot be used to make purchases from merchants. Nor are you guaranteed your money will be delivered within 2 minutes in case of cross-border remittance.

Because Cheq actually opens a new Indian wallet, we must do the passport verification. Regulations are pretty specific in this regard currently.

Rest assured though, when you try to open your Cheq wallet today, your details will only ever be seen by White collared staff on direct Payroll of Transcorp. The agent only takes a photo of your passport for our records (no paper copies of your details are stored).

We'll keep trying to improve the onboarding experience in the coming years for sure.

You cannot use them to make everyday purchases. And there's no guarantee by when the recipient will receive money.

> Verify yourself at any one of our partner branches across India

How do I find out if there's a branch nearby without downloading your app and committing to an unknown amount of effort? I couldn't find a list of your branches anywhere, but it looks like it would be a showstopper if there isn't one available. It's as if you're being evasive about how widespread your coverage is. Why should I invest my time if it seems likely that you won't have a branch where I need it, and therefore I won't be able to use your services at all?

For example: do you have a presence in the arrivals areas at major airports? If so, which ones?

In fact, it seems that your call to action is to download your app. But why would I bother to do that if I know I won't get anywhere without visiting a branch to get approval first? Assuming you have no choice about in-person documentation checks, it would make more sense for you to send prospective customers to their nearest branch, have their documents checked and approved there, and to provide wifi at every branch so that they can get the app up and running quickly - for example with a QR code or something generated by your staff when documentation is approved and an account created. Being asked to set up the app first, when we know we will be blocked on a visit to a branch, seems backwards.

Your FAQ says:

> Your passport and Indian VISA are required to open a tourist wallet

What about OCI holders? Are your branch staff going to be familiar with this case, or will it be a waste of time to show up with one?

> You can add funds to your tourist wallet via an instant payment gateway.

This is a non-answer. Is this through the app? Through the website? Through something else not specified? Are there any criteria that must be met? Or do you support adding funds immediately via credit card without any further review steps apart from the usual payment flow expected when buying anything else online? Because that's what I'd like, and this answer makes me doubt that this is what you mean.

1) https://transcorpint.com/find-us => You can verify yourself at any of these centers across India.

We'll improve the site to directly point customers to appropriate verification centers (thanks for pointing this out)

2) OCI holders are accepted as well. Only your passport and OCI card are required

3) Add funds facility is instantenous. And is available in the app once you've finished the verification. You'll be able to add funds via any card, and instantly receive funds in your Cheq wallet for spending.

Just looking at the locations, it's a 2-3hr cab ride in Mumbai/Kolkata between the airports and the transcorp centers during rush hours, and 1-2hr trip in Delhi. Also credit cards are widely accepted at most places except roadside stalls, etc.

This service would be beneficial to visitors and NRIs (like me) if cross-sold with SIM cards or in currency exchanges at airports, otherwise I fail to see a valid use case due to the sheer inconvenience of having to take such a long cab ride in traffic. Also a lot of international flights land at night so visitors would have to dedicate at least half of next day to go verify their identity.

You probably would want to co-operate with the SIM vendor offices at airports, they already do same checks if you want mobile data in India so might as well do it for UPI.

Doing the account opening process online would be best but isn't allowed under existing regulations.

The target persona who would use this is probably in the Indo-American diaspora, which skews Telugu, Malayali, Kannada, and Tamil - and that too a mix of larger cities and smaller towns (the South Indian versions of Moga and Ludhiana such as Coimbatore, Thrissur, Warangal).

In my experience, Punjabi NRIs are tech averse and tend to head directly to the pind where you can still use cash, or stick with Chandigarh/Delhi, where credit card support is mainstream.

Re-pivot to target the more tech aware Indian diaspora in the US - they would be more open to adopting a "random" app (not to dunk on you guys - getting into YC is amazing, but it doesn't have street credit outside the Bay Area).

It's a connundrum whether these centers are more useful at/near airports or city centers. I would think airports, and therefore someone travelling to Mysore wouldn't need to go to your Bangalore center, but I may be wrong.

If you don't mind sharing, what's the thought that went into these locations?

Transcorp has been operating from these locations since the last 20 years or so. Cheq is just hopping aboard.

We can also arrange for home/hotel verification to tourists. An agent will travel to your location and finish the verification.

However, this facility is only available in a limited number of cities across India and we're already backlogged with requests.

We'll work on improving ease of onboarding in the coming months for sure.

Handing over my passport doesn’t bother me as most hotels ask for it and take a copy at check in.

However I am in Leh.

And your link above doesn’t seem to open on my phone here (Airtel SIM).

I hope you manage to make it easier to apply - sounds like a great idea.

But this is amazing. Do you have a subscription service or do you charge a markup on forex deposits ?

Also how did you build a legal structure to allow this ?

Congrats on the launch. Wish you success :)

10$ joining fees and a 3.5% markup on adding funds is the current business plan.

We'll observe customer usage over the next 3-6 months and figure out if fixed fee subscriptions can be cheaper.

> Also how did you build a legal structure to allow this ?

We've partnered with Transcorp International Limited to operate the Cheq app in India. They are an RBI approved AD2 and PPI license holder. Customer funds are parked in an escrow account with them until utilized via the UPI network.

This is also why Cheq physical verification can happen only at Transcorp branches currently.

You can think of Cheq as a technology platform using Transcorp as our banking partner.

Or Transcorp, as a financial services firm, using Cheq as its technology partner.

> Apart from the 10$ account opening fees, there are no other costs for using the product. Funds added can be spent anywhere across India.

As mentioned above, there is a 3.5% fee for adding funds.

I looked into Cheq before my recent trip to India. After doing the math I realised it was cheaper to take out some cash at the airport for smaller transactions and tips. I had no issue using my credit card at larger stores.

I'd definitely prefer this next time, if I could count on being able to set it up. (Or knew I'd go again so set it up while there for next time.)

Its in the "plan" and we'll introduce it once the volumes go up enough to require compensations. Maybe in 2-3 months or longer.

Hence, the summary says 10$ only.

But cross border payments are expensive to facilitate. And this is the best rate we've been able to figure out currently.

Btw, In the US, Most ATMs are charging 3-5$ extra each time I withdraw cash. Plus the currency conversion charges.

Our prices are definitely better.

Do you pass on the wholesale rate from your provider directly, or is there some spread too? My bank Monzo for example gives me Mastercard's rate on the day the payment (in-person abroad or online in foreign currency) settles, so I always use it for such transactions even though it wouldn't otherwise be my first choice of card.

(Or alternatively, can I be charged INR to load Cheq account, rather than card's native currency? Then anyone with a better option for the conversion can do that.)

And plan to keep optimising these costs with time and volumes.

Also, loading Cheq with INR is not allowed for foreign tourists currently.

You can topup with international currency only

Although that sounds logical, there are multiple services that offer 0% fx conversion. Wise, Monzo, Niyo etc. These travel cards are what I carry around in a different country.

Adding funds via credit/debit card incurs an hefty merchant commission.

And hence, no forex company can't sustainably provide 0 FX rates for too long unless they're only taking funds via bank transfer.

I have given this feedback earlier, too, but the copy sounds Ind-lish at most places. Your customers are going to be primarily non-Indian. It would be best to have a native speaker, such as an American, to review and re-write. I’m an Indian and have worked primarily with overseas clients since the early 00s. I have learned a lot about what we speak/write sounds normal, but they sound either funny at best or rude at worst.

Not in a derogatory way, and I’m guilty of being one myself, too. However, this is what I equate to, “Quite a tad of our Indian English is like driving a car with the handbrake half-engaged or sawing a hardwood with an unsharpened tool.”

Best of luck. This tool needs to exit.

I’d perhaps be happy to see translation options as Indian English, American, UK etc on a modern humorous tone :-)

Please go through the WebArchive of any successful Indian Startups (even the ones focused on Indians); they all eventually moved to a more Internationally better sounding English. We Indians can understand them and are not culturally nostalgic or patriotic about “Indian English.”

While we are at it, I guarantee that once they succeed, if not the founder of Cheq, the investors and/or external forces will force them to buy `Cheq.com.` I will be surprised if they are not thinking of getting that domain already.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jugaad

> they all eventually moved to a more Internationally better sounding English.

well, international, yes. But, better sounding English? who are we to judge which one is better? Someone has to bring in the change of attitude and originality that Indian startups catering to an Indian audience can feel free to communicate to the audience in their speak, and not worry about blindly measuring themselves against a superficially superior standard. Does the copy need to be unambigous, grammatically correct, uninsulting, and non-discriminatory? Yes, and I will back you up. Is it wrong because the English or Americans dont say it that way, I wont care.

>`Cheq.com.` Nothing to do with any nation, but .com is the default of the web, and even the browser defaults to it with a shift + enter, So, yes, it is advantageous to capture that real estate. That is good advice to startups that havent thought of it in time.

Thank you very much for the suggestion!

> It would be best to have a native speaker, such as an American, to review and re-write.

Great idea.

We'll definitely try to work with someone in this capacity.

We're already incorporating multiple language support and language translations.

Some feedback:

Bad typo on homepage (should be sponsor not sponser - also why is this so prominent on your landing page, seems weird).

Who is transcorp and how are you related to them? Western people are very unlikely to have heard of them (I had to Google), and are you part of them, powered by them, etc? It's confusing having two brands like that at the top of your page.

The two "British" video testimonials don't have British accents. Are you sure they are actually British?

Finally in terms of practical steps I think not having branches at airports to do the KYC checks is a major issue.

Btw, I think partnerships would be a good way to market yourself. There are a lot of prepaid travel cards in the west and I can imagine they'd be happy to look at promoting you.

Will get this fixed. Also improve the positioning of it.

The idea behind getting sponsors was to keep the customer charges as low as possible.

We're attracing a very premium customer base and I am confident merchants would like to place themselves before our audience.

> Who is transcorp and how are you related to them? Western people are very unlikely to have heard of them (I had to Google), and are you part of them, powered by them, etc? It's confusing having two brands like that at the top of your page.

Transcorp is our banking/licensing partner. We're currently using their services in India to manage customer funds and power our UPI connection.

I understand your feedback though. We'll work on presenting this better.

> The two "British" video testimonials don't have British accents. Are you sure they are actually British?

Hahah, Nice catch. I just rechecked. Andrew is British. Olivia is American. Leo is Russian. We'll update this.

> Btw, I think partnerships would be a good way to market yourself. There are a lot of prepaid travel cards in the west and I can imagine they'd be happy to look at promoting you.

That's a great idea. We'll definitely explore this route for growth.

[1] https://m.timesofindia.com/business/india-business/hassle-fr...

Behind the scenes story below :

Until last year, there was no way for Indian fintechs to provide UPI services to international citizens.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) decided in January 2023 to issue UPI enabled wallets to international citizens visiting India during G20.

We got a call late at night asking if our team can quickly deliver this solution.

Our team stepped up and the first version was delivered within 30 days.

This app was used to showcase UPI to various the G20 delegates who visited Bangalore in February.

We've spent another 5 months tweaking things and finally, we feel ready to launch the app in front of you :)

LOL, in person passport verification, really? No thanks. And even if that would be OK, where and when?

The bullet points suggest that there is no sensible way for a foreigner to pay in India so I just won't go to India. That said, paying cash is probably an experience not as bad as depicted. I've been to countries were the only option was bringing local currency either from home or from an exchange counter in the capital. Not much can be worse than that.

https://transcorpint.com/find-us

Multiple branches. We can also arrange for at home verification.

> The bullet points suggest that there is no sensible way for a foreigner to pay in India so I just won't go to India.

Hahha, Think of Cheq UPI as a convenience for the foreigner while visiting India.

I am in SF currently and pay 3-5$ extra each time when I withdraw cash from ATMs.

Would've loved to use an app like Cheq here itself. But I don't think there's a parallel to what we're building in the US

Also the website does not seem to be well thought out - 1. No mention of how to use UPI or Cheq. 2. Where to go to get verified? 3. I could not find an ios app. Is there one coming soon? 4. Too many typos as others too have noted. "UPI wallet let’s you pay " <-- lets 5. Lots of irrelevant content on the home page. 6. Confusing "get started" button that is actually an image.

Definitely. And make it possible to do it from home before flying to India. Tourists have more time there than after landing into an airport and starting to move around the country, maybe even without spending a night in a hotel first.

https://link-to.app/cheq

And thanks for all the suggestions. We'll improve the website asap.

https://m.economictimes.com/wealth/save/upi-for-nris-with-in...

The list of countries are Canada, Singapore, UK, USA, UAE, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Australia.

I had an NRE with icici. But kyc requirements kick in after some period during which the account is idle. This happened often, because I don’t use it when I’m in the US and my parents didn’t use it in India.

Getting that unlocked was a bit of a process needing snail mail and identity documents. It wasn’t icici’s fault. They were super helpful.

In short, I closed the account. Besides the depreciating rupee makes it not so attractive to keep dollars in India anymore.

This has been the case for the past decade though, still no reason to keep money in India except pocket change for local expenses.

I simply gave my relationship manager an email with all the necessary docs. While very unsafe, it's convenient and a single point of failure. Also helps that I only have the equivalent of like 10k USD in the account.

Is there any way for me to invest in your startup?

I am, by no means a VC. Just a normal salaried individual that wishes to invest a little bit in your startup.

Happy to chat.

Seems like a funny coincidence

Or maybe UPI becomes like the new https.

Each country implementing its own versions

But UPI will feel more convenient. And it works everywhere.

in any case, the Dutch supermarket chain albert heijn still doesn’t accept any cards except some non starter locally developed ones.

i always found it interesting that the netherlands are so far behind places like the UK when it comes to payments. even countries in SE Europe have better payments infra than the Netherlands.

Some debit cards (or pre-paid 'charge cards', such as any specifically marketed for travel) like Monzo bank's don't, are just like using it at home in GBP (as long as you make sure you're being charged the foreign currency, not 'helpfully' converted for you (at a terrible rate) by the merchant's PoS provider).

> Some debit cards (or pre-paid 'charge cards', such as any specifically marketed for travel)

for anyone checking this thread, these two are not the same. debit cards are different from pre-paid, and some shops will have issues with pre-paid.

> not 'helpfully' converted for you (at a terrible rate) by the merchant's PoS provider

oh yes, this is one of things travellers always need to be aware of: never select currency conversion by the PoS, always charge in the local currency and let your bank to the conversion.

..hence one or the other..?

> never select currency conversion by the PoS, always charge in the local currency and let your bank to the conversion

That's not good generic advice. Be aware of your best card's fees and see what's better. Credit cards especially are generally atrocious. Some banks' debit cards are free (Monzo, Revolut) and others are no better than credit cards. Hence the market for the pre-paid ones I suppose.

These are the steps you'll have to follow if you plan to launch a new UPI app:

First, you'll finalize the business plan + team.

Second, you'll have to find early investors and backers

Third, you'll have to find a banking partner to work with

Fourth, you'll have to develop the product

Fifth, you'll undergo certifications and audits by RBI approved third parties

Sixth, you're app will be tested by officials at the NPCI

Seventh, Now you go live

Only after step 7, do you get to know if customers will buy your product.

Or if the entire effort goes to waste.

How are you planning to make this scale? Presumably you want a significant portion of the 10 million traveler yearly to use this app.

Longer term solution however, will be doorstep verification facilitated by the Transcorp team / in-house agents.

Does this link not work for you? https://link-to.app/cheq

Can you try searching for Cheq in your app store/playstore and see if the install works from there?

What's the error

You'll be able to purchase INR using your international card at no extra cost apart from the 10$ basically.

Standard add money rate will be 3.5% . Whenever we start applying the same.

This is less than half the fees charged by airport money changers.

Simply purchase the product, finish your setup and speak with your assigned account representative.

They'll get you activated

We'll have to verify the new documents and enable the wallet again.

I would hope so, because I think otherwise I wouldn't want to use it without OCI (i.e. a perpetual visa it's not an issue) - would just be an annoying thing to keep track of.

Your account balance and history will remain consistent and untouched.

Your wallet will remain active and you can use the funds next time you visit again.

But we have geofencing restrictions which prevent customers from initiating payments while outside the country. Due to certain regulatory restrictions.

Because, on a basic high-level look, why would a country not want inflows of foreign cash, typically you do want to sell goods/services for foreign money, good for GDP.

In principle, there shouldn't be a concern allowing people to access their own money from anywhere in the world.

However the product category itself is very new right now.

We'll have to demonstrate strong customer need before approvals might be granted.

Our download redirects to the android playstore by default on desktop. But if you open it on the iphone, it will take you to the app store.

https://link-to.app/cheq