Backend and API development in Bengaluru
A familiar Bengaluru backend was written quickly by a strong early engineer who has since left, frequently for a GCC paying more than the startup could. What remains works, mostly. Nobody is sure which background jobs matter, the schema has three columns that mean the same thing, and every change to the payments flow is made by the one person still around who remembers why it is shaped that way.
We start by writing down what the code actually does, then fix the handful of things most likely to page someone at night: retries that duplicate charges, queues nobody monitors, queries that fall over at the next funding round's traffic. We work in the codebase you have, not a rewrite, and because we are in the same city, the first review of the architecture can happen at your whiteboard.
Bengaluru is where we live and work, so this page is less a pitch than a description of the market we see every week. The defining fact about it is that startups and global capability centres, the in-house engineering offices of foreign companies, are competing for the same engineers. A GCC can offer a larger salary, a guaranteed bonus and a stable employer. A Series A startup offers equity and a harder job. The engineer you want usually has more than one offer, a notice period to serve, and a counter-offer waiting. So the roadmap slips while the hiring plan catches up.
The companies that call us here come in a few recognisable shapes. Startups whose first backend was written by an engineer who has since left, often for one of those GCCs. SaaS companies built in Bengaluru and sold to customers in the US and Europe from the first year, now closing their first enterprise account and the feature list that comes with it. Deep tech teams in space, robotics, semiconductors and applied AI, where the core work is research or hardware and the software around it, the dashboards, device APIs and data pipelines, is nobody's job. And GCC leaders who need a working proof of concept before headquarters will approve the headcount to build the real thing.
What they need built is usually a defined piece rather than a whole product. A backend mapped, documented and made safe to change. Single sign-on, custom roles and tenant isolation for the enterprise deal. A device API and a dashboard for a robotics team whose engineers would rather be working on the robot. A proof of concept a GCC can demo to its parent company. We build those in your repository, in increments that ship, and write the architecture notes and runbooks as we go, so whoever you hire next can read them in their first week.
We share your time zone, so the working day is the same on both sides and a question asked in the morning is answered in the morning. Because we are in the same city, a kickoff or an architecture session can happen at your office rather than on a call. Most of the work still happens in writing, in your repository and your chat, because a decision written down survives the people who made it.
We are the right fit when you have a defined piece of work and want a senior engineer on it this month rather than after a hiring round. Start with a fixed-price two-week piece and judge us on what ships. We also cover the months before your next hire joins, and work white-label for Bengaluru agencies under your name.
Four ways this arrives.
We read the code, write down what it does versus what everyone believes it does, and give you the list of the five things most likely to page someone at night. Then we fix those first.
Usually queries, not architecture. We profile under real traffic, fix the plans and the indexes, and only then discuss whether anything needs splitting apart.
A mobile client, a partner integration, a public API. We design the contract first, version it properly, and write the docs your consumers will read.
Jobs that silently vanish, retries that duplicate charges, a queue nobody monitors. We make it idempotent, observable, and boring.
A moderated messaging backend where sends acknowledge in-band and the review runs behind them.
Read the write-up →Asked by Bengaluru teams.
Can we meet in person?+
Yes. We are in Bengaluru, so a kickoff, a design review or a whiteboard session at your office is easy to arrange. We share your time zone, so calls happen inside your normal working day. Day to day we work in your tools, Slack, GitHub and Linear or whatever you already use, and you talk directly to the engineer writing the code. In-person time is best spent on the first architecture discussion and the handover.
Do you build for Bengaluru SaaS companies selling abroad?+
Yes, and it is one of the most common pieces of work we see here. We build what the first overseas enterprise customer asks for: single sign-on, custom roles, tenant isolation that holds under a missing filter, a log of who changed what, and billing through Stripe that copes with several currencies. The work happens inside your product, in increments that ship, so the deal keeps moving while the list gets shorter.
How does your rate compare to hiring in Bengaluru?+
PayScale puts a mid-career software engineer in Bengaluru at about ₹18 lakh a year. Our published rate is $35 an hour, with a $5,000 minimum. For that you get a senior engineer who writes the code, works in your Slack, GitHub and Linear, and starts within days, with no recruiting round, notice period or employment overhead. Begin with a fixed-price two-week piece at $2,800 and judge us on what ships.
We keep losing engineers to GCCs. How can you help?+
We add senior capacity while you rebuild the team. An engagement starts within days, so the roadmap keeps moving through the notice periods and counter-offers. We take a defined piece of work, ship it in your repository, and write the architecture notes and runbooks your next hire reads in their first week. The code belongs to you from the first commit, so picking it up later is a conversation, not a project.
Can you work in our existing codebase?+
Yes, and it is most of what we do. We do not require a rewrite as a condition of working with you. If we think a rewrite is genuinely the right call we will say so, with the reasoning and the cost, and you can decide.
What if the backend is in a language you do not list?+
Then we will tell you. We are useful in Node, Python and TypeScript. We can read Go and PHP well enough to migrate off them. We would not take a Rust or Elixir project and learn it on your budget.
Do you write tests?+
For anything with money, permissions or data loss in it, yes. We do not chase a coverage number. We will tell you which parts are covered and which are not in the handover notes.
Who owns the code?+
You do, from the first commit. Repositories live in your organisation. If we set them up, we transfer them before the first invoice.
What happens when the engagement ends?+
You get runbooks, architecture notes and a recorded walkthrough. We stay available for questions for a month at no cost, because a handover that needs us on retainer is not a handover.