Hong Kong-founded fintech company PhotonPay has announced it has raised $40 million in a Series C funding round anchored by Blockchain Capital, an investor in Coinbase, Circle, and Kraken.
The round was also backed by Japan’s SBI Group and existing investors IDG Capital, GL Ventures, and Lightspeed Faction, as PhotonPay expands its stablecoin-focused payments infrastructure.
The proceeds will fund multi-asset wallets, global card issuing, local clearing infrastructure, and payment services for AI agents, PhotonPay said.
“Moving money across borders in seconds means little if it still takes days to put that capital to work,” said Lewison Chen, founder and chief executive of PhotonPay.
Founded in Hong Kong in 2015, PhotonPay provides payment infrastructure through application programming interfaces that allow businesses and technology platforms to integrate financial services into their own products.
Its network enables customers to open local collection accounts in 17 markets, receive funds in more than 60 currencies, and make payouts through more than 100 payment routes.
As of August 2026, PhotonPay said its annualised transaction volume had reached $65 billion.
The company said it serves more than 200,000 business customers across over 200 countries and territories and holds 34 payment and financial licences and regulatory authorisations across the Americas, Europe, and Asia.
The company said about 97% of its payout transactions reach recipients within hours or on the same day, with 68% arriving in real time.
It issued 4.4 million cards in the 12 months leading up to the announcement, an increase of 275% from a year earlier.
PhotonPay said it is also developing infrastructure to support AI-driven financial transactions, as businesses explore the use of autonomous software to manage payments and other operational tasks.
In May 2026, the company and Mastercard completed a live demonstration of an AI-initiated payment using a tokenised PhotonPay card across existing global card networks.
However, the expansion of AI-enabled financial services will depend on underlying banking relationships, regulatory approvals and payment infrastructure, rather than software alone.
“Establishing local financial capabilities takes years of investment, institutional partnerships, and regulatory engagement. Software or AI models alone cannot replicate that depth,” said JP Pi, chief compliance officer at PhotonPay.
