Your company’s bank account is one of the easiest wins in the whole move: you can open it from India, before you fly, in about ten minutes. This file helps you pick the platform, split the accounts once payroll starts, put idle cash to work, and move money between your Indian and US companies without quietly losing a slice of it. Start with the box below.
WHAT A FRESH DELAWARE C-CORP CAN OPEN FROM INDIAAUG 2026
~10 min
the whole application, online
none
US address, SSN, or visa stamp required
3
documents: formation docs, EIN letter, passport
$0
monthly, on Mercury’s base tier
The account is almost always Mercury. Open it before you fly.
CAUTION — KEEP PERSONAL AND COMPANY MONEY SEPARATE
Your personal account and credit file are a separate problem with a separate sequence. That file is Money, credit & ITIN. Keep the two strictly apart from day one. Mixing them is the cheapest mistake to avoid and the most expensive one to undo.
The four platforms
None of these are banks. All four are fintechs holding your deposits at partner banks. That matters twice. {{ g.fdic.tag }}{{ g.fdic.def }} runs through sweep networks rather than a single institution. And an account freeze gets resolved by the platform’s support team, not a branch manager.
PLATFORMWHO IT’S FORWHAT IT COSTSHOW DEPOSITS ARE INSUREDKEEP IN MIND
Mercury ↗The default first account◄ START HEREA fresh Delaware C-corp with an international founder, opening its first account. It has the widest acceptance of non-resident founders and the deepest startup track record.$0. Paid tiers at $35 and $350 a month only gate NetSuite automations, reimbursements beyond 5 users, and advanced invoicing.Up to $5M, via partner-bank sweep networks.Mercury’s credit card (called IO) repays itself daily until you hold $15k, then unlocks 30-day terms. Limits track your cash balance and get reassessed after large withdrawals.
Rho ↗The main alternativeYou, if yield on idle cash is the deciding factor: its treasury opens at a lower minimum than Mercury’s. Banking, bill pay, cards and treasury sit in one platform.$0 minimums, $0 per user.Checking sits at Webster Bank at the standard $250k. Savings reach up to $75M via a sweep across 400+ banks.Less name recognition with some vendors and investors. Checking and savings coverage differ, so read which product your balance actually sits in.
Relay ↗The sub-account specialistYou, once more than one person spends company money: it gives you up to twenty named sub-accounts, each with real routing numbers.$0 to start. Automated bill pay needs the $30 a month plan.Up to $3M via Thread Bank’s sweep.Thread Bank took an FDIC enforcement action in 2024, and account-freeze complaints recur in reviews. Pair it with Mercury or Rho rather than making it your only account.
Brex ↗The funded-startup optionFunded startups: a $50k cash balance, or VC or accelerator backing. Come back after a raise.$0.Up to $6M via sweep.Requires a US physical address plus US operations, so it is rarely an option before you arrive. Capital One closed its $5.15B acquisition in April 2026, and underwriting and product terms are actively shifting.
come back to Brex, don’t start there
Before a raise it will likely decline you. After a $50k balance or a lead investor it becomes genuinely competitive. What the Capital One deal does to its startup-friendliness over the next year is an open question nobody can answer yet, including Brex.
Split the accounts before you need to
A single checking account is fine for the first six months. Split when you actually start running payroll, not on any particular date.
OPERATING
Day-to-day spend
The account your cards and bill pay draw from.
PAYROLL RESERVE
Funded one pay cycle ahead
That way a platform hiccup never delays a paycheck.
TAX RESERVE
A running set-aside
Feed it a percentage of every payroll run, so the payroll tax deposits and the eventual corporate bill are already covered.
Relay’s named sub-accounts, up to twenty and each with real routing numbers, are the cleanest way to run this. Mercury and Rho both support multiple accounts under one login, which does the same job with slightly less structure.
What idle cash should earn
Runway sitting in 0% checking quietly loses you money every month. Drag the slider to your balance and see how much.
SECTION A — IDLE CASH, NOT NEEDED FOR 90 DAYSDRAG TO YOUR BALANCE
ANNUAL YIELD, PER PLATFORM, AT{{ idleLabel }}
$0$5M
{{ y.name }}
{{ y.tag }}
{{ y.amt }}
{{ y.note }}
{{ yieldNote }}
A {{ g.sweep.tag }}{{ g.sweep.def }} moves any balance above a threshold you set out of checking into a yield product, and back when checking dips below it. Rates are from July and August 2026 and move constantly.
CAUTION — TREASURY IS SIPC, NOT FDIC
Both treasury products are brokerage products. They are covered by SIPC, not FDIC. And one detail worth knowing from Mercury’s own eligibility list: a US company physically operating from India qualifies.
What it costs to move money
Mercury and Rho charge nothing for ACH or wires, including international USD wires. The numbers below are what a traditional bank charges. You pay them whenever the other side insists on a specific way of sending the money.
WHAT TRANSFERS COSTAUG 2026
$0
ACH and wires on Mercury and Rho, international USD included
2–4%
big-bank currency markup over the mid-market rate
~0.5%
specialist FX (Wise, Airwallex) on major routes
$15–50
per intermediary bank on a SWIFT route
Sticker fees are the advertised number. The real cost adds the currency markup, which is where the money goes.
SECTION B — SENDING, INDIA ↔ USDRAG TO THE AMOUNT
WHAT EACH ROUTE REALLY COSTS, SENDING{{ sendLabel }}
$1k$100k
{{ r.name }}
{{ r.speed }} · STICKER {{ r.sticker }}
{{ r.real }}
{{ r.note }}
{{ railNote }}
Good to know
01
The recipient sees $30 to $90 less than you sent
Intermediary banks skim it along the way, invisible until it lands. When an exact amount must arrive, ask your bank to send “OUR”, which means the sender pays all charges. Or use a route that quotes the amount that will land.
02
Moving the money is not the same as withholding tax
Paying Indian contractors through a platform that does not handle India-side compliance leaves your company exposed if TDS, India’s tax deducted at source, was not withheld correctly. The platform and the responsible entity are different things.
03
There is no UPI here
The everyday routes settle in days, not seconds. Even same-day wires respect banking hours and cutoffs. Autopay and payment scheduling exist precisely because the system is slow.
When both companies exist
The structure itself, the {{ g.odi.tag }}{{ g.odi.def }} framework, round-tripping rules and transfer pricing all live in the US entity file. Read that first. What belongs here is the banking layer it doesn’t cover.
ask your bank this directly
Money from the Indian company to the US one must route through an Authorized Dealer bank and be reported as ODI. Confirm your bank holds an AD Category-I licence. Then ask whether their ODI desk has processed a founder-flip structure before, not just traditional outbound acquisitions. Filing delays almost always trace to an unfamiliar ODI team.
The automatic route caps total financial commitment (equity plus loans plus guarantees) at 400% of the Indian company’s net worth on its last audited balance sheet. For an early-stage company that just raised, fresh capital does not count until the audited accounts exist. That can make the cap surprisingly small, and push funding toward personal LRS remittances or US-side fundraising instead.
Keep the ODI filing reference number attached to every related US-side bank record, from the first transfer. Nothing on the Mercury or Rho side changes because money arrived as an ODI transfer. But at reconciliation or audit time, that reference is what connects the two sets of books.
Your Indian CA handling the ODI filings and your US accountant booking the receipt should reconcile the same transaction on a shared calendar. India’s FEMA reporting and the US company’s tax and KYC obligations run on different deadlines. The common failure is one side quietly falling behind.
CAUTION — FEMA AMENDMENT, MAY 2026
Rules effective May 2026 added a beneficial-ownership test for round-trip structures. Government approval is now required where an entity from a country sharing a land border with India holds 10% or more anywhere in the chain. If your structure touches one, get counsel on it explicitly.
Personal remittances are a different file. Sending your own money home, NRE and NRO account mechanics, and the 1% US remittance tax are in Money, credit & ITIN.