- Build: the partner recruits and onboards under its own Indian entity.
- Operate: the partner employs the team and runs payroll, PF, ESI and TDS while you direct the work.
- Transfer: you form a wholly owned subsidiary, report its foreign capital in FC-GPR within 30 days of allotment, and the team moves across.
- Under the OSH Code on India Code, every employee needs an appointment letter from the new employer.
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How does a BOT model work for a GCC?
It lets you test a global capability centre before you own one.
The partner carries the early risk.
It hires the first 10 or 50 people, sorts office space, signs the vendor contracts and gets payroll and statutory filings right month after month. You watch. Output, attrition, cost.
The transfer is the part to negotiate on day one. A good BOT contract fixes the trigger (a date, a headcount or your notice), the fee for the handover, and exactly what moves. That usually means people, laptops, licences, vendor contracts and the knowledge base. Our guide to build-operate-transfer contracts lists the clauses.
What moves to you at transfer?
The people, if they agree. In Indian law, you cannot assign an employee like a laptop or a lease.
| Item | What happens at transfer |
|---|---|
| Employment | Each person resigns or is released by the partner and accepts your offer |
| Service history | Counts for gratuity only if your contract says so |
| PF account | Stays with the employee under the same UAN |
| Leave balance | Paid out by the partner or carried over by agreement |
| IP and equipment | Assigned to your entity in writing |
Let’s say an engineer has 4 years and 7 months with the partner on ₹60,000 a month in wages. Seven months rounds up. On those terms she is owed about ₹1,73,077 in gratuity.
If the partner pays it out, your clock restarts at zero. If you agree to recognise past service, you take on that liability instead.
How is BOT different from an ODC or an EOR?
An offshore development centre never transfers by default. An EOR team can move whenever you choose, under an EOR-to-entity transfer.
So the real difference is timing and price. BOT locks the handover, and its fee, into the contract from day one. EOR leaves it open.
How does Remunance run a BOT-style path to your own entity?
Remunance acts as the build and operate partner through its EOR service, then handles India subsidiary formation and moves your team onto it. Our subsidiary formation case study shows a US firm that ran its India team on our EOR for a year, then opened its own subsidiary. To agree a transfer date before you hire anyone, map your BOT timeline with our team.
What else do people ask about the BOT model?
What is the BOT model in IT?
It is a set-up where a partner builds and runs a software or service team in India, then transfers it to the client’s own entity.
Is BOT cheaper than setting up a subsidiary directly?
Often, in year one. You skip entity costs while the team proves itself.
Later, the transfer fee and the partner’s margin can add up to more than hiring directly through your own subsidiary would have cost.
What is the BOT transfer fee?
It is a one-off fee the partner charges to hand over the team. No law sets it. Fix the formula up front.
Planning a hire in India?
Our founding team has run payroll and hiring in India for 22+ years, first as Remunance Systems, which was later acquired by ADP.