A desk that gets small suppliers paid on time by large buyers
TL;DR Duepaid works for micro and small suppliers who sell to big companies and wait months for payment. It gets their invoices onto a TReDS exchange where banks bid to pay early, and when a buyer stalls past the legal limit it prepares the delayed-payment claim. Suppliers pay a monthly fee. Duepaid never lends.
A report by two MSME bodies and an invoice-finance platform put delayed payments owed to Indian MSMEs at Rs 7.34 lakh crore as of March 2024[1]. The funny thing is the law is already on the supplier's side. Under the MSMED Act, a buyer must pay within the agreed term and never later than 45 days, or owe compound interest at three times the RBI bank rate[2].
So why don't small suppliers use it? Most don't, and the ones who do often lose. The government's Samadhaan portal shows 2,56,892 applications filed by small firms, yet 81,761 were rejected and ₹29,497.79 crore is payable in cases filed since late 2017[3]. A founder who also runs the factory floor has no time to file a clean claim, and fears losing the customer if they do.
What it does, in regulatory terms: invoice facilitation and claim preparation only. Duepaid does not lend, buy invoices or hold money, so it needs no NBFC registration. Banks and factors on the TReDS platforms provide the finance.
Here's how it works. A supplier connects its GST invoices and its buyer list. Duepaid checks Udyam registration, finds which buyers are on a TReDS exchange, onboards the supplier there, and chases the buyer's accounts team until each invoice is accepted, so financiers can bid on it. For buyers not on TReDS, it tracks every invoice against the 45-day clock, sends polite reminders, and at day 60 assembles a complete Samadhaan filing with the interest worked out.
The seed pitched AI-powered instant factoring, and I've moved away from that. Funding invoices is factoring business, which needs RBI registration and a large balance sheet[4], and private invoice-discounting platforms and the TReDS exchanges already compete on price. What small suppliers lack is someone to do the paperwork and the chasing.
The user is the owner or accountant of a micro or small manufacturer selling to large companies or public-sector units. The supplier pays a monthly fee per buyer tracked, plus a success fee on interest actually recovered, both my assumptions to test. Today the alternative is a chartered accountant on retainer or nothing. One large early-payment platform says it charges suppliers no platform fee[5], so Duepaid must show savings bigger than its own price.
On 7 November 2024 the MSME Ministry cut the TReDS threshold - every company with turnover above ₹250 crore, and every CPSE, had to onboard on a TReDS platform by 31 March 2025, down from ₹500 crore under the 2018 rule[6]. Thousands more large buyers are now on the exchanges. Many joined to comply, and their suppliers still need someone to get invoices accepted.
I found no public figure for a supplier-side collections or TReDS onboarding service. The narrowest real number is the ₹29,497.79 crore payable in Samadhaan cases[3], which is money small firms were willing to fight for formally. The Rs 7.34 lakh crore delayed-payment estimate[1] is adjacent context, not your market.
One invoice-discounting platform runs its own exchange and says it serves 700+ corporates with 15 financier partners[7]. A global early-payment marketplace lets suppliers name a discount rate for early payment from large paint and pharma buyers[5]. The licensed TReDS exchanges let banks bid on invoices. All of them sell to buyers or financiers first. None I found works only for the small supplier, on collections as well as finance.
| Difficulty | Moderate (37/100) |
| Starting capital | ₹45–85 L |
| Time to launch | 4–6 months |
The software is modest - GST invoice import, a clock per invoice and document assembly. The hard part is human. Someone has to get a large buyer's payables team to accept invoices on an exchange it joined only to tick a box, and claims must be drafted well enough that councils accept them.
No NBFC or factoring licence, because Duepaid never funds or buys an invoice.
Building this outside India? The categories above usually have a local equivalent, so check with your own regulator.
Don't let AI file a legal claim or decide whether to take on a big customer. That call carries real business risk, so the owner makes it.
Want to work out the AI layer for Duepaid? Talk to Yash →
Here's what can go south -
I think this is a good fit for a founder from MSME banking, a TReDS exchange or a CA practice who knows how payables teams work. If you want to build a lending business then skip it. Prove first that for 30 suppliers at least half of their invoices to TReDS-listed buyers get accepted and funded within 30 days.
Plan for roughly ₹45–85 L, mostly on a small software build and the people who chase buyers and draft claims.
Not if you never lend, buy invoices or hold money. Factoring needs RBI registration, so stay a facilitation service and follow each TReDS exchange's terms.
Yes, late payment to small suppliers is common everywhere. Check your local late-payment law and debt collection rules before you start.
The free Duepaid validation kit has the line-by-line capital breakdown, the effort scoring, the factoring and data-protection checklist, a 14-day validation sprint with pass/fail targets, a 90-day launch plan, 10 interview questions for suppliers, and 5 assumptions to test. Download the kit →
Thinking about building Duepaid or something close to it? The make-or-break work is getting large buyers to accept invoices their suppliers put on TReDS, and that's the kind of thing I help founders with. If you need a hand, you know where to find me. Talk to Yash →
For illustration only. Names are fictional and ideas hypothetical; sourced facts are real but may be out of date. Nothing here is legal, financial or professional advice, and Yash Khatri is not personally liable for any use of it. Read the full disclaimer.