Startups in India, Southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe are struggling because of extremely low payment success rates, sometimes below 60%.
And they can’t even offer some of the most in-demand local payment methods like Klarna or Apple Pay due to regulatory blockades.
In this exclusive interview with
Website Planet, Rishabh Goel, CEO of Dodo Payments, explains why emerging market startups are still shut out, and how Dodo’s Merchant of Record model flips the script, delivering 90%+ success rates out of the box.
If you’re a founder from an emerging market scaling across borders, this is your must-read for today.
Global payment gateways are killing international growth
Expanding globally brings unique challenges like integrating an international payment gateway, taxes, and regulations, which can overwhelm growing businesses.
For scaling startups in emerging markets this gets even worse, since their payment gateways face significant issues in onboarding speed, regulatory compliance, payment method diversity, settlement times, infrastructure, security, and international transaction support.
Especially digital-first businesses in India, Southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe are still forced to duct-tape together outdated payment gateways, half-baked tax tools, and clunky fraud systems that weren’t designed for scaling rapidly across borders.
The result?
- Lost revenue
- Failed checkouts
- Endless compliance headaches
Recent studies confirm that international payment success rates can fall below 60% when relying on domestic gateways. A broken experience for any brand with global ambition.
Still, over 70% of buyers prefer local payment methods like Klarna, Apple Pay, or UPI, but most digital-first businesses (especially those based outside the U.S. or EU) can’t offer them due to regulatory and licensing barriers.
It’s clear that the current infrastructure is costing businesses sales.
Who’s losing the most to failed cross-border payments
To scale globally, startups need payment solutions that support multi-currency pricing, local payment methods, fast settlements, and tax automation, which most traditional domestic gateways currently do not fully provide
In fact, traditional gateways like Razorpay, Payoneer, and PayPal:
- Are licensed domestically and lack seamless foreign payment methods
- Don’t handle multi-country tax compliance automatically
- Have higher fees and slower settlements for cross-border payments
- And fail to optimize payment success rates across borders
This results in high cart abandonment, failed payments, lost customers, and operational complexity, all of which directly translate into lost revenue.
Just think that US businesses lose 2.1% of global revenues annually due to poor payment performance, including false declines and failed transactions. It gets even worse for emerging markets like India, SEA, and Eastern Europe, where digital brands are losing significant revenue daily.
The smarter alternative
Plugging into a global Merchant of Record like Dodo Payments makes cross-border payments as easy as charging locally. Much better than duct-taping payment gateways, tax tools, and fraud systems.
We handle payments, tax compliance, and regulations, enabling seamless global transactions, so businesses can focus on growth while we manage the complexities of cross-border commerce.
Unlike Razorpay or PayPal, which are licensed only in their home markets, Dodo takes end-to-end ownership of every transaction.
That means:
- 25+ payment methods (Apple Pay, Klarna, PIX, etc.)
- In-house tax billing + remittance across 150+ countries
- PCI-certified, fraud-ready infrastructure
- Checkout that speaks 20+ languages & 30+ currencies.
No one else gives emerging market founders this level of global-native payment infrastructure out-of-the-box. A true all-in-one solution for global transactions, automated compliance, and stress-free scaling for SaaS founders and online businesses.
Need proof?
In just 4 months:
- We’ve processed payments in 150+ countries
- onboarded 10,000+ merchants across 30+ countries
- Delivered 90%+ success rates for cross-border transactions (vs. a 40 – 60% average)
To give you a real example, one B2C SaaS company switched from a popular Indian PG to Dodo Payments. Overnight, their payment success rate in the US jumped from 46% to 96%,
doubling revenue from the same traffic.
Where Dodo Payments is going next
We want every digital business whether in Bangalore or Belgrade to offer
local checkout experiences for every global customer.
Our roadmap includes:
- 300+ global payment methods
- Powerful Billing features including usage-based
- Retention, Distribution, Analytics and other tools
- Dev-first SDKs & APIs
In 5 years,
Dodo Payments will be the go-to payment layer for the global tech economy, quietly powering borderless businesses.
Not just a payments product, but a global infrastructure reimagined for digital businesses everywhere.
How can our readers connect with you?
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/goelrish/
X: https://x.com/garGoel91