PhotonPay, a stablecoin-based payments infrastructure provider, said it had raised a Series B funding round of “tens of millions of dollars” led by IDG Capital, as investors step up bets on blockchain-enabled rails for cross-border commerce.
Hillhouse Investment also participated alongside Enlight Capital, Lightspeed Faction, and Shoplazza, the company said, adding that Blacksheep Technology acted as exclusive financial adviser.
PhotonPay did not disclose its valuation.
The company, founded in 2015, said the fresh capital will be used to accelerate the expansion of its stablecoin financial rails, hire key talent and broaden its regulatory footprint globally, with an emphasis on the US and selected emerging markets.
The company said it operates from 11 hubs and has more than 300 employees. It serves customers across e-commerce and marketplaces, business-to-business trade, online travel agencies and logistics, while also targeting fast-growing digital sectors such as AI, software-as-a-service, and digital entertainment.
PhotonPay said it now processes more than $30 billion in annualised payment volume on a “stablecoin-native” clearing infrastructure, helping tens of thousands of businesses reduce international fund transfer costs by more than 75% and improve operating efficiency by 60%.
Founder and CEO Lewison Chen said global payments were shifting from slow, fragmented interbank networks to real-time, digital-asset-native systems designed for continuous liquidity and smarter treasury operations.
He said PhotonPay aims to make stablecoins “stablecoin-ready” as a default layer in the future payments stack.
To deepen connectivity with global payment networks, PhotonPay cited partnerships with financial institutions including J.P. Morgan, Circle, Standard Chartered, DBS and Mastercard, and said it plans to strengthen capabilities in account issuance, acquiring and foreign exchange.
The company also said it plans to roll out “enterprise value-added services,” including treasury products that can generate yield on idle balances and flexible credit facilities, starting in 2026.
The round underscores growing interest in stablecoin plumbing as merchants and platforms look for cheaper, faster settlement, especially for cross-border payouts.
But scaling will hinge on regulatory licensing, bank and card-network relationships, and risk controls, areas where payments firms face rising scrutiny as stablecoin usage expands beyond crypto trading into mainstream commerce.
