Backspace Tech: Erasing Banking Inefficiencies with AI-Powered Dispute Management
India is a global leader in digital payments, but the back-end infrastructure of its banks is often stuck in a legacy era of manual file-based systems. When a transaction fail or a fraud occurs, the "dispute" can take weeks to resolve, costing banks significant overhead. Praveen Krishna Dev, the Co-founder of Backspace Tech, is on a mission to solve this "invisible" problem. By automating the complex world of chargebacks and online dispute resolution, his platform is saving banks thousands of dollars while providing customers with real-time transparency.
The story of Backspace Tech is one of lifelong friendship and entrepreneurial persistence. Praveen and his co-founders, Vishwanath (CTO) and Karthik Sivaram V (CEO), have been friends since kindergarten—a 30-year bond that has survived multiple startup attempts. From a failed automobile app in 2014 to a successful bootstrapped dewatering firm, they eventually returned to their "Tech Dream" in 2020. With a name that symbolizes "erasing history to create innovation," Backspace Tech is now building the digital rails for India's 3,000+ banks, one dispute at a time.
The ₹500-Per-Dispute Problem
Globally, for every $1.00 of dispute, the actual amount spent by a bank on processing is $1.30. In India, the overhead expense per dispute—excluding network charges—ranges from ₹400 to ₹500. Whether the dispute is for ₹10 or ₹10,000, the manual effort required remains the same, creating a massive efficiency drain that Backspace Tech aims to reduce by 75%.
The 30-Year Partnership: From Kindergarten to SaaS
Praveen Krishna Dev's background is a unique blend of civil engineering and financial management. After his masters, he spent years working on high-scale projects like the Qatar Metro. But the entrepreneurial bug, first caught in 2014 with an app called "Grease It," never left. "We were ahead of our time... there was no Jio, and physical servers cost ₹2 lakh a month," Praveen reflects on their first failure.
After a successful bootstrapped stint in construction dewatering, the trio decided to tackle a "meaty" global problem. Vishwanath, who had spent 10 years building banking products for giants like HSBC and First Data, identified the "invisible" pain point: chargebacks. They realized that while everyone was solving front-end payment problems, no one was building a product for the messy, manual world of back-end disputes. Thus, Backspace Tech was born in a "tin sheet" office, fueled by the grit of childhood friends.
"The name Backspace came from the idea that there are two buttons to remove words: Delete or Backspace. Delete removes completely, but Backspace is used to rewrite things. We want to erase the legacy in banking and create something new."
The Solution: Resolution as a Service (RaaS)
Backspace Tech's flagship product is a **Unified Dispute Management (UDM)** platform. It targets the "Online Dispute Resolution" (ODR) mandate introduced by the RBI in 2020, which requires banks to provide real-time dispute handling. Their system automates the entire lifecycle—from the moment a customer clicks "dispute" on their mobile app to the final arbitration with Visa, Mastercard, or NPCI.
The Backspace Tech Automation Engine
- Instant Capture: Seamlessly integrates with a bank's CRM to capture transaction disputes directly from the user's mobile interface.
- AI Validation: An AI analyst analyzes uploaded documents (like invoices), validates them against network reason codes, and files the case without human intervention.
- Smart Case Management: Automatically assigns complex cases to the right human analysts based on their skill set and availability.
- Merchant Integration: Uses channels like WhatsApp to allow small merchants to respond to chargebacks instantly, reducing the 7-14 day manual waiting period.
Breaking the "Enterprise Sales" Barrier
One of the biggest challenges for any fintech is the banking sales cycle, which can range from 10 months to 4 years. Initially, the team tried to bootstrap, but they quickly realized the scale was too massive. "Tech talent is not cheap... and we couldn't penetrate the market as fast as a VC-funded company," says Praveen. After raising funds in 2022, they moved from "tin sheets" to a 22-person team, aggressively validating their product with global contacts.
Their approach is a "Resolution as a Service" model. Instead of a bank spending $10 million and 3 years to build a bespoke system with a GSI like TCS or Wipro, Backspace Tech offers a SaaS patch that integrates in weeks. They handle all regulatory updates from the RBI or global networks as automatic patches, allowing bank leadership to "sit and relax" while the software stays compliant.
Backspace Tech: Scale and Traction (Jan 2026)
- Automation Potential: Automating 70% to 90% of initial banking dispute processes.
- Cost Reduction: Target to reduce the cost per dispute to one-fourth of current levels.
- Market Opportunity: Serving a landscape of 2,000-3,000 banks in India alone.
- Productivity Gain: Eliminating the need for manual case assignment and document verification.
The Meaning of "Backspace": Erase and Innovate
For Praveen Krishna Dev, entrepreneurship is the freedom to dream alongside people you trust implicitly. He believes that "erasing history"—specifically the legacy technologies holding back the banking sector—is the only way to create true innovation. By focusing on a "global first" category like chargebacks, where no dedicated product previously existed, Backspace Tech is positioning itself as a Vertical SaaS leader.
Founder's Wisdom: The Persistence of Dreams
Trust your core: Having childhood friends as co-founders removes the "baggage" of corporate requirements and creates a shared vision that can withstand the "tin sheet" days.
Validate before you build: Don't just sit in a drawing room. Speak to the market, see if they will consume the product, and raise funds once you have a scalable roadmap.
Be catchy but contextual: Choose a name that sticks. "Backspace" is familiar but implies the exact transformation needed in the legacy-heavy world of banking.
The Future: Beyond Disputes
As Backspace Tech enters its third year of full operations, the focus remains on the "Unified" aspect of their platform—handling UPI, Cards, FastTags, and all digital payment modes under one roof. But the vision extends to 2045, with plans to explore blockchain and cross-border remittance. By solving the "invisible" problem of disputes today, Praveen and his team are building the foundation for a frictionless global financial future.
In the world of Indian banking, the "Backspace" button is no longer just on the keyboard—it's a tool for total industrial transformation. As Praveen concludes, "We want to elevate bank operations... ensuring they handle the latest tech without the weight of the past."
About the Guest
Praveen Krishna Dev is the Co-founder of Backspace Tech. A civil engineer with a Masters in Financial Management, Praveen has a diverse entrepreneurial background, having co-founded Grease It and Swan Dewatering Systems. After gaining international experience working on government infrastructure projects in Qatar, he returned to India to launch Backspace Tech with his childhood friends. He is a proponent of "Resolution as a Service" and is dedicated to digitizing the legacy back-end systems of the global banking industry. He leads execution and strategic growth for the firm.
Backspace Tech is a leading banking SaaS provider specializing in digital dispute management and automated chargeback resolution. By providing an end-to-end "Unified Dispute Management" platform, the company helps banks and financial institutions automate up to 90% of their manual dispute workflows. Backspace Tech is committed to reducing operational costs and improving customer transparency in the rapidly evolving digital payments ecosystem.