Prithvi Exchange is a foreign-exchange house that has spent three decades turning a tightly regulated currency-changing business into a technology-led platform - it holds an RBI Authorised Dealer Category II licence, renewed until 2029, and its tagline “Making Forex Simple” captures the recurring approach: take a compliance-heavy, trust-dependent transaction and make it faster and easier, first through a national branch network and now through digital tools that blend physical and online service. Incorporated in August 1995 and headquartered in Chennai, the company has grown from a single-city operation into a listed entity with 36 branches across 25 Indian cities, recognised by Deloitte’s Enterprise Growth Awards and multiple Tamil Nadu Tourism Awards for Best Forex Service. That same pattern - build trust through regulatory credentials and physical presence, then layer on proprietary technology - now shapes its push into digital forex platforms, self-issued travel cards, and a planned expansion into markets where Indian students travel, including Germany, Dubai and Singapore.
Business segments
A single engine powering the whole company - foreign exchange for retail and corporate customers - now being extended through a dedicated enterprise desk, a proprietary digital platform, and a newly licensed insurance subsidiary.
1. Foreign exchange: the core currency engine
Every rupee of revenue starts with buying and selling foreign currency - notes, cards, drafts and wire transfers - for individuals and businesses that need money to cross borders.
- Full product shelf under one licence - the company sells and encashes foreign currency notes, prepaid travel cards, traveller’s cheques, foreign currency demand drafts and SWIFT wire transfers, covering every major currency. Because it holds an RBI Authorised Dealer Category II licence, it can handle non-trade current account transactions and foreign trade transactions up to ₹25 lakh per transaction, which is the regulatory foundation for the entire product range.
- Customers who need rupees turned into dollars, fast - the buyer base spans corporate travellers from IT and manufacturing, shipping companies paying crew wages, students paying university fees abroad, ultra-high-net-worth individuals, government companies, and foreign tourists visiting India. The company also maintains relationships with banks and travel agencies that feed customers into its branches.
- Earns on the spread, the commission and the service charge - revenue comes from the margin on buying and selling currency notes and prepaid cards, commission recognised on an accrual basis, and explicit service charges. Currencies and gold are held as stock-in-trade, so the company carries inventory risk, though import and export transactions are hedged through forward contracts and coverings with overseas banks.
- A branch network that reaches 25 cities - as of March 2026 the company operates 35 branches, with six cities hosting more than one outlet, and added four branches in the most recent year alone. That physical footprint matters because foreign exchange is a trust business: customers want to hand over cash and documents in person, and the branch presence in cities from Amritsar to Trivandrum gives the company a fulfilment network that pure-digital competitors lack.
- Risk managed through back-to-back booking and customer profiling - in the outward remittance business, every transaction is booked back-to-back with the bank treasury, leaving minimal open exposure. For corporate clients, a Customer Acceptance Policy profiles each customer by business type, market standing and financial strength, with system-level limits that are monitored continuously.
2. Enterprise desk: corporate travel and crew wages
A dedicated team chasing the niche where compliance complexity keeps competitors out - shipping crew wages and corporate travel mandates that need multi-currency support and low conversion spreads.
- A specialised team for a specialised buyer - the company has onboarded a qualified enterprise team with dedicated relationship managers and a remittance desk, focused on large corporates and SMEs whose forex needs are too compliance-heavy for a standard branch counter. The “Cash to Master” business - paying crew wages to ships calling at Indian ports - was identified as a specific opportunity and is being scaled across multiple branches.
- Low spreads as the competitive hook - the enterprise vertical offers multi-currency support with low conversion spreads, which matters to corporate treasurers who compare pricing across the roughly 33 active non-bank AD Category II firms in the Indian market. The nationwide branch network gives it a fulfilment advantage: a shipping company in Chennai and a corporate travel desk in Mumbai can both be served from the same platform.
3. Digital platforms: the technology layer being built on top
A proprietary digital ecosystem - customer app, WhatsApp service, self-issued Visa cards and a planned industry platform - designed to turn a branch-based forex house into a fintech that scales without adding brick-and-mortar.
- “Forex on WhatsApp” as the bridge from physical to digital - launched in February 2026, the service lets customers access live forex rates, initiate booking requests for currency purchase, encashment or remittance, and resolve queries through a conversational interface, part of a deliberate “Brick-Click” model that keeps branches while adding digital access.
- Self-issued cards change the economics - the company has secured VISA membership and owns the intellectual property for Prithvi-branded forex cards, with multi-currency cards planned for launch. A native mobile app for iOS and Android is being built to let users manage the card, view live balances, set limits and PINs, and see transaction history, which turns a one-time forex purchase into an ongoing customer relationship.
- A platform for the industry, not just for itself - the company is developing a Platform-as-a-Service solution intended to provide integrated technology infrastructure, compliance enablement and operational efficiencies for other forex industry participants. It is also building a B2C forex platform with end-to-end digital journeys, live rate integration and branch workflow orchestration, and a D2C website as a self-help booking tool.
- Regulatory tailwind for digital reach - the RBI’s draft framework allowing AD Category II entities to process trade remittances and appoint forex correspondents is seen as an opportunity to extend the digital platform into tier-2 and tier-3 cities without building branches. The company had already explored a principal agency model where forex correspondents would operate under its licence.
Group structure and partners
A family-led group with a newly licensed insurance broker and a digital-forex associate - both extending the core forex franchise into adjacent regulated businesses.
- The company has a wholly owned subsidiary, Octagon Insurance Broking Private Limited, which received an IRDAI licence in July 2024 to act as a direct insurance broker for life and general insurance, valid for three years. The subsidiary was incorporated in March 2023 and is 99.99% held by Prithvi Exchange.
- An associate company, Prithvi Global FX Private Limited, operates a digital platform for exchanging, purchasing and selling currencies; Prithvi Exchange holds a 40% equity stake, approved by the board in October 2020. Related-party transactions between the two entities have included business promotion expenses and commission payments.
- The Managing Director, Mr. Pavan Kumar Kavad, and the Whole-Time Director & CFO, Mr. Kalpesh Kumar Kavad, are brothers, and both hold directorships in the subsidiary and the associate. The Chairman, Mr. K.N. Deenadayalan, brings over 37 years of banking and foreign-exchange experience, including treasury roles at American Express Bank and Indian Bank.
- The company’s banking relationships include Axis Bank - which named it “most valued partner” in 2014 - as well as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda, Indian Overseas Bank, Union Bank of India, State Bank of Mauritius, IndusInd Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank.