What is Versatile?
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Versatile is an India-native Employer of Record. We are Foo Falcon Technologies Private Limited (CIN U72900KA2022PTC163007), headquartered in Bengaluru, founded June 2022. We are the legal employer of your India team. You direct the work; we hold the employment relationship, run the monthly payroll, handle every statutory obligation, and provide one consolidated USD invoice every month. Same pricing band as the India-native peers ($99-$399 PEPM); the differentiation is in compliance documentation depth, named support, business insurance coverage, and the all-in-one operations stack.
How is Versatile different from Deel or Remote?
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Deel and Remote are global Employer of Record vendors with India coverage. They typically sub-contract or partner-route the India operations layer to a local Indian provider, then surface it through their global dashboard. Versatile IS the India entity. There is no sub-contractor between you and Foo Falcon. Compliance escalations reach our named compliance lead inside 4-6 hours; partner-routed global EORs typically run 24-72 hours because the dashboard surface routes to the partner and back. The structural difference matters most at 5+ India hires and at audit time.
How is Versatile different from Wisemonk?
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Wisemonk and Versatile are both India-native EORs in the same pricing band. Where we differ: published compliance certificates (Versatile publishes six. CIN, GSTIN, ESI, Udyam, TAN, PAN; Wisemonk publishes none), named compliance lead on every account, explicit business indemnity (E&O + IP indemnity + professional indemnity), and a single MSA for the whole India operation including recruitment + equipment + benefits. Wisemonk's strengths: a longer G2 review history and a polished self-service dashboard. We acknowledge both on the comparison page.
What does Versatile pricing actually include?
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$99-$399 per employee per month covers: employment contract, monthly payroll, all twelve statutory items (PF, ESIC, gratuity, professional tax, TDS, Form 16, Shops & Establishments compliance, POSH, maternity), audit-grade documentation cross-reference matrix, equipment from our Bengaluru warehouse (Macbook + accessories), group health and life insurance at group rates, and access to the named compliance team with 4-6 hour TAT. The fee is range-priced based on team size and salary bands. No setup fee. No exit penalty. First month is free.
How fast can you onboard an India hire?
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Five business days end-to-end. Day 1 MSA + offer letter. Day 2 KYC (Aadhaar, PAN, bank). Day 3 PF + ESIC enrolment + state-specific professional tax registration. Day 4 equipment shipped from our Bengaluru warehouse. Day 5 first salary scheduled. The SLA holds across every city we operate in (Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Mumbai, plus on-request expansion to other states).
Do I need an Indian entity to use Versatile?
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No. The whole point of Employer of Record is that you do not need an Indian entity. We are Foo Falcon Technologies Private Limited, registered in Karnataka with active Shops & Establishments licences in nine states. You sign a Master Services Agreement with us; we sign the employment contracts with your India hires. At 25-30 India hires the entity break-even crosses in favour of direct payroll; we support the EOR-to-entity transition transparently.
What audit standards does Versatile support?
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SOC 2 Type II, SOX, Microsoft vendor audit, listed-entity audit (we handled Swiggy's November 2024 IPO transition without a payroll gap), and India statutory audit. Every payslip is cross-referenced to its underlying PF challan ID, ESIC eligibility log, and TDS payment evidence. The cross-reference matrix is what survives external auditor walkthrough. Audit pass rate across the Versatile portfolio: 100% (verified Q1 2026).
How does USD invoicing work?
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For US clients, we invoice in USD on a US-side receiving account, Net 15. Your accounts payable wires USD; we hold the FX exposure on our side and convert to INR at the Reserve Bank reference rate. For UK clients, we invoice in GBP on a UK-side receiving account or in USD if preferred. There is no FX markup. The conversion math is documented per invoice. The model is structurally different from Wisemonk (INR invoicing, customer absorbs FX) and Deel (USD with documented 1-2% markup).
Who runs Versatile day-to-day?
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Sagar Chainani is the founder. The company is Foo Falcon Technologies Private Limited (CIN U72900KA2022PTC163007), registered in Karnataka, incorporated June 2022. Customer-facing compliance is handled by a trained team of India payroll specialists with a named Compliance Lead, Filing Specialist, and Senior Compliance Reviewer assigned to every account. The team is the brand; Sagar signs the MSA but does not bottleneck operational compliance escalation.
Support email:
[email protected].
Average TAT: 4-6 hours during India business hours.
What about contractors who are not full-time?
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Versatile Contractor of Record is the right product. $19 per contractor per month. Compliant agreement drafted in 48 hours, USD invoicing, TDS withheld at the applicable rate (1% individuals, 10% professionals), Form 16A issued quarterly. The Contractor of Record protects against misclassification risk under India's 2020 Industrial Relations Code. Pricing is pro-rated for partial months. No setup fee.
Can I see Versatile case studies before signing?
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Yes. Three fully-detailed case studies are published: ePublishing (6 engineers, 11 months, mid-cycle migration with UAN continuity), LinkedIn (8 designers placed into LinkedIn India's design GCC, 100% audit pass), and Swiggy (30+ specialists across 26 months, BUNDL→Swiggy Limited IPO transition handled). Each runs 6,000-8,000 words with verified Zoho-traceable metrics. Reference calls with current customers available on request through your discovery process.
What if my India hire wants to leave or I want to exit Versatile?
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India has a standard 90-day probation period built into the employment contract. During probation, separation requires one week's notice from either side. After probation, the notice period extends to 60-90 days per market norm. Versatile handles all separation paperwork including the Full and Final settlement, Form 16 issuance, UAN transfer (if the hire moves to a new employer), and equipment recovery. There is no exit penalty on the customer side. The MSA can be terminated with 30 days written notice.
How does Versatile handle compliance across all 28 Indian states?
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Versatile holds active Shops & Establishments licences in nine states currently (Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat). For specialists in cities outside these nine, we extend coverage within the engagement with a 1-2 week lead time for the first hire in a new state. India's 28 states have meaningfully different professional tax structures and labour department documentation requirements; the state-specific overlay is part of our compliance pipeline by default.
What is the New Labour Code and how does it affect my India team?
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India passed four Labour Codes in 2019-2020 (Code on Wages, Industrial Relations Code, Social Security Code, Occupational Safety Code) to consolidate 29 older labour statutes. Full notification of the rules is rolling out across states; until full notification, Versatile files against the older framework. Key structural changes: the contractor classification tests are tighter, the Basic + DA component of CTC must be ≥50%, and gratuity eligibility may eventually drop from 5 years to 1 year. We track notifications weekly and update our pipeline within the same payroll cycle.
Can Versatile help build an India GCC at scale?
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Yes. The structural playbook for building a Global Capability Centre in India is EOR-first, entity-later. Months 1-18 you scale on Versatile EOR; months 6-12 we run parallel entity setup preparation; at 25-30 hires the entity break-even crosses and we support the transition (UAN continuity preserved, gratuity accrual handed off, employment contracts move to your new Indian Pvt Ltd). Build-Operate-Transfer is also available as a custom engagement for customers who want a fully operational entity on day one.
What is the first-month-free offer?
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For new customers, the first month of Versatile Employer of Record fees is free. This is risk reversal, not a discount. It gives you a complete payroll cycle to evaluate the operational discipline (5-day onboarding SLA, 4-6 hour compliance TAT, audit-grade documentation, USD invoicing cleanliness) before paying anything. The statutory contributions (PF, ESIC, gratuity, TDS) are not part of the free month and are billed at cost. There is no setup fee, no commitment, and no exit penalty.
