PhotonPay, a payments infrastructure firm building a stablecoin-centric Financial Operating System for businesses, has closed a $40m Series C round as it pushes to merge on-chain liquidity with traditional banking rails and prepare its platform for AI-driven payments.
Blockchain Capital led the round, which drew SBI Group as a new backer. Existing investors IDG Capital, GL Ventures and Lightspeed Faction also returned. Blacksheep Technology served as the company’s exclusive financial adviser on the deal.
PhotonPay will direct the capital towards upgrading its multi-asset wallets, widening its global card issuing operation, reinforcing local clearing in priority markets and building an execution layer that AI agents can use. The firm also plans to bolster compliance infrastructure in current markets and enter new jurisdictions.
By August 2026, the company was processing $65bn in annualised transaction volume. It holds 34 payment and financial licences and regulatory authorisations across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and counts more than 200,000 business clients in over 200 countries and territories.
The platform combines multi-asset wallets, cross-border transfers, foreign exchange, local clearing and card issuing within a single API-first system. Stablecoins form its foundation, with wallets linking digital asset liquidity to fiat balances so firms can convert holdings into spending power for local payments.
Customers can open collection accounts in 17 markets, accept funds in more than 60 currencies and pay out through over 100 routes, including 74 major local e-wallets. Around 97% of payouts land the same day or within hours, and 68% settle in real time. PhotonPay issued 4.4 million cards in the past year, a 275% annual rise, and supports more than 100 enterprise and platform partners via embedded finance.
In May 2026, the firm ran a live agentic payment test with Mastercard using a tokenised PhotonPay card. It now plans Model Context Protocol support, a policy-driven framework to govern agent spending, and AI-assisted risk reviews that flag complex cases for human checks. Its network relies on ties with J.P. Morgan, Standard Chartered and DBS, as well as domestic systems including Brazil’s Pix and Mexico’s SPEI.
PhotonPay founder and CEO Lewison Chen said, “Moving money across borders in seconds means little if it still takes days to put that capital to work. Stablecoins are accelerating global money movement, while local clearing and global card issuing connect that liquidity to local settlement and everyday business spending. Our Financial OS brings these capabilities together, making the underlying infrastructure far less visible to businesses, even as it becomes more essential than ever.”
He added, “At the same time, business software is becoming increasingly autonomous. AI is shifting financial workflows from people manually operating fragmented tools toward systems that understand business intent and coordinate execution across assets, accounts and financial rails. That creates the foundation for agentic commerce. Stablecoins change how money moves. AI changes how it gets put to work. But commerce is still what money is for.”
Chen also said, “Connecting financial networks is only the beginning. The real breakthrough is abstracting that complexity behind a unified, programmable financial layer, so businesses and AI agents can move from intent to execution within clearly defined boundaries.”
PhotonPay chief compliance officer JP Pi said, “AI can simplify how businesses interact with financial services, but it cannot replace the infrastructure required to deliver them. Establishing local financial capabilities takes years of investment, institutional partnerships, and regulatory engagement. Software or AI models alone cannot replicate that depth. The simplicity businesses experience is the result of that heavy lifting, not a substitute for it.”
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