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by yaacov 1094 days ago
Finally a question about my area of expertise!!

I’m the CTO of commenda.io. We help Indian startups get set up with RBI-compliant, venture-ready Delaware c-corps.

There are 2 reasons why Indian corporations like to incorporate in the US:

1: VC. American VCs love investing in Indian startups, but they hate investing in Indian corporations. YC invests only in corporations set up in the US, Canada, Singapore, or Cayman Islands. Other VCs have different requirements, but they all accept US.

2: Sales. If you’re selling to US customers (which most Indian SAAS startups want to do), a US entity will help you build trust and a US bank account will make it easier for your customers to pay you.
2 comments
splix 1094 days ago
Cayman Islands, really? I thought it's a huge read flag for banks, IRS and other agencies, so VCs, including YC, would avoid it. Maybe I'm wrong as I'm not an expert, so can you please tell more?

Also, you didn't mention EU and UK. Does it mean that YC would prefer Singapore to a EU/UK startup?

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alephnerd 1094 days ago
Cayman Islands to Marutius to India was a common route [0].

Also there is a lot of FDI that is brought via the Caymans into India.

Btw, YC lists Caymans as one of the handful of jurisdictions it will support investing in [1]. I dealt with it some time back when I was helping companies choose between YC and Sequoia Surge.

[0] - https://medium.com/paper-blog/who-owns-sequoia-capital-in-in...

[1] - https://www.ycombinator.com/faq

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splix 1094 days ago
Oh, I see. Thank you for the links. So, UK/EU are not accepted by YC, that's really surprising considering that Caymans are perfectly fine.
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alephnerd 1094 days ago
Cayman Islands is a member of the UK.
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splix 1094 days ago
But it's not the UK, right? I mean I cannot incorporate in UK and then say it's a Cayman Islands company for YC purposes (i.e., without incorporating another entity to own the first)
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alephnerd 1093 days ago
When you incorporate in the "UK" you incorporate in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Jersey, Isle of Mann, etc.
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yaacov 1094 days ago
If you have any questions, please reach out to yaacov[at]commenda[dot]io
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