PhotonPay, a Hong Kong cross-border payments company founded in 2015, has closed a US$40 million Series C round led by Blockchain Capital. SBI Group joined as a new investor, and existing backers IDG Capital, GL Ventures and Lightspeed Faction also took part, the company said on October 30.
PhotonPay plans to spend the money on wallets that hold stablecoin and fiat balances together, on card issuing, on local clearing in its main markets and on an execution layer for AI agents. It did not disclose a valuation. The company’s own figures:
- US$65 billion in annualised transaction volume as of August 2026
- 34 payment and financial licences and authorisations across the Americas, Europe and Asia
- 4.4 million cards issued in the past 12 months, up 275% from a year earlier
- Local collection accounts in 17 markets and payouts to 74 local e-wallets
In May, PhotonPay and Mastercard completed a live payment started by an AI agent with a tokenised PhotonPay card. The company now plans to support the Model Context Protocol, so that AI agents can read balances and start payments within limits a business sets. It names J.P. Morgan, Standard Chartered and DBS among its banking partners.
Why it matters: Stablecoins can move money between two companies in minutes, but a supplier in Brazil or Mexico still wants local currency in a local account, and that last step needs a licence and clearing access in each market. PhotonPay is asking investors to pay for the 34 licences it already holds. SBI’s entry ties the round to Japan, where SBI units are testing yen stablecoin payments with Korean card issuers, Shinhan Card among them.
Source: PhotonPay press release, October 30, 2026; TNGlobal, October 30, 2026
Image: WiNG, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
