befree is on a mission to build a global platform
The buoyancy witnessed in India’s Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) industry that practises outsourcing complex and knowledge-based tasks to external providers is consistently nurturing the ambitions of agile entrepreneurs. They continue to leverage the niche expertise to serve global clients in multiple areas like finance, accountancy, etc, by creating a dynamic market for specialised knowledge services. KPO entrepreneurs in India often start by offering specific deep-dive skills, like a pool of chartered accountants doing global accounting or tech experts handling complex data, tapping into global demand for specialised insights.
Even in 2025, Indian KPOs continue to dominate the global outsourcing landscape, supported by their skilled workforce, cost advantage and technological prowess. The Indian KPO market is estimated at $23 billion in 2025 and is expected to cross $100 billion by 2035. India’s niche financial process outsourcing services in the KPO space is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 20 per cent through 2035 and India is expected to contribute over 50 per cent of the global knowledge process outsourcing services in the years to come. This high growth rate is projected to show the same progression in the decades to come.
The Indian KPO industry is also a significant employment generator, offering numerous jobs across various skill levels and specialised domains, such as finance, analytics and legal services. It serves as a vital pathway for skilled professionals in India to engage with global clients and projects. KPO careers differ from traditional ‘Business Process Outsourcing’ roles by offering more complex, knowledge-based work, which translates to higher earning potential and clear paths for career progression. The KPO industry thus heavily leverages India’s large pool of highly educated professionals, including finance graduates, MBAs, chartered accountants, engineers, lawyers, etc, who possess the specific expertise needed for complex tasks.
“Our KPO, ‘befree’, employs over 1,500 highly skilled professionals,” says Jignesh Kanabar, a chartered accountant & promoter, based in Gandhinagar. “The company operates from our talent centres based in cities like Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Kochi, Chennai, Indore, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune and Gurugram.” It is one of the leading providers of accounting and finance outsourcing services across the globe. Considered to be one of the most successful KPOs based in India, befree, founded in 2006, also provides specialised training programmes to upskill employees, ensuring that the workforce remains competitive and capable of handling high-value tasks. “Today, befree has also grown into a specialised offshore partner for finance functions, helping global accounting firms, financial planners and enterprises manage financial processes with high-quality compliance, automation and scalable delivery teams,” adds Kanabar. “We combine our deep industry knowledge with technology and automation to co-create innovative and customised yet scalable outsourcing solutions.” An Indian national, Kanabar worked as a chartered accountant in Australia for a few years before moving back to India to kick-start his full-fledged KPO operations in Gujarat as an entrepreneur. “I chose the name ‘befree’, as it means ‘beyond the idea of freeing time’. It reflects what the company delivers to businesses worldwide,” explains Kanabar.
Rich talent pool
India provides a large, highly educated workforce with deep domain expertise in various fields like finance, law, engineering, and data analytics. This allows global clients to tap into a rich talent pool without the burden of extensive in-house hiring and training. A talent pool of over 300,000 management graduates is available annually in India. These highly skilled professionals add a cutting edge to India’s knowledge-intensive services. In essence, the strong business relationship between international companies and Indian KPOs is a strategic partnership that provides significant value beyond simple cost reduction, by offering specialised expertise and operational advantages in a highly competitive global market.
While KPO is knowledge-intensive, outsourcing to India offers substantial cost savings in labour and operations (40-60 per cent cost reduction) due to lower cost of living in India and favourable wage arbitrage. It is indeed a major driver for the international firms to outsource their services to Indian KPOs. This cost-efficiency makes India a go-to KPO hub that attracts business of reputed international clients, including multinational companies, banks, insurers, etc.
Certainly, money is a big factor. Every foreign company tries to save it. Coming to Indian KPOs, they offer cost-effective solutions without compromising the quality. The cost compared to outsourcing companies in developed countries is far way lower. Moreover, the time zone difference allows for a continuous workflow from Indian KPOs, with Indian teams working, while client-side teams are off-duty. This enables 24-hour project development cycles, significantly shortening the time to market for products and services.
“We serve over 3,000 international clients based in the US, Europe, the UK and Australia,” says Viral Kanabar, co-founder & CEO, befree. “We have got dedicated accounting firms established in the UK and Australia. These firms represent our company’s core specialisation.” befree’s client-delivery model is now shifting from a dedicated resource approach to a full Offshore Development Centre (ODC) model, in which clients build multi-layered, long-term finance teams with reviewers, managers, domain specialists and quality controllers, he adds. “Our mission is to create value for our clients by transforming their businesses with enhanced efficiency, scalability and innovation. We are committed to delivering the highest quality services with fairness, driving sustainable growth and profitability.”
Tough competition
However, the finance KPO space is highly competitive in a developing country like India. Also, India is obviously facing competition from Poland, the Philippines, etc, as a big challenge, where other foreign competitors are also offering similar services at lower costs. The high attrition rate is a big concern, which is estimated at 20-25 per cent in the Indian KPOs, for which the fierce competition for skilled jobs and upskilled employee burnout can be the primary reasons. Despite being cost-competitive, the rising operational cost (the sum of infrastructure, salaries and technology adoption) is frustrating for many Indian KPOs. Besides, inflation and increased expectations of employees for better pay-out make it worse. Rising competition, skill gaps and data security concerns too pose significant challenges to the Indian KPO companies.
According to Vaishali Kanabar co-founder, befree, the finance outsourcing sector in India has been facing three major structural challenges. Rapid regulatory changes across global markets like the UK and Australia demand constant talent upskilling in tax, advisory standards and data privacy. AI and automation are disrupting transactional work, pushing companies to move up the value chain into judgment-based, review-led and advisory functions. And, cyber-security and compliance now dictate outsourcing, not just cost savings, making global trust and process maturity a significant differentiator. “Despite these challenges, growth remains our utmost priority along with the innovation to maintain our leadership in the KPO space,” she adds. “befree’s focus is on building a global ODC finance platform, not just resource outsourcing. Going forward, our growth will be driven by expansion in the US, the UK and Australia as integrated delivery markets and development of automation-led offerings in finance, payroll, compliance & paraplanning. Also, we are focused on setting up specialised ODC capabilities for banks and insurance finance operations over the next 24 months. Our long-term objective is to build one of India’s most advanced ODC-based finance ecosystems emerging out of Gandhinagar city”.
The Start-up India mission has also pushed for an innovation-friendly ecosystem for the KPO industry. This is again a plus point that is highly advantageous for KPOs like befree operating in niche domains. And, the trend indicates that expanding to Tier II and III cities certainly bolsters the growth of Indian KPO service providers. Relocating business operations to mid-sized cities where the operational cost is low and the talent pool is also overwhelming, invariably generates huge revenues for the Indian KPO players.
The company is constructing a 17-storey sprawling headquarters spread across 115,000 sq ft area in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) in Gandhinagar, informs Jignesh Kanabar. GIFT City plays a catalytic role in the expansion of KPOs like befree. “A place like GIFT City helps to position the Indian KPO companies within a globally recognised regulatory ecosystem that is critical for securing trust from international accounting bodies,” he adds. “The IFSC environment also strengthens data security compliance as a decisive factor for outsourcing decisions for clients based in countries like the UK and Australia. Also, GIFT City allows companies like befree to build large, technology-enabled delivery hubs that are capable of serving complex financial processes of global standards.” Buoyant Indian KPO industry thus consistently nurtures the growth of reputed financial service providers like ‘befree’ that continuously recruits highly skilled Indian professionals like MBAs, CFAs, CAs, etc, having advanced financial knowledge to serve the global clientele.