Payy Secures $6M Seed for Privacy-Focused Stablecoin Network

• Payy secures $6 million in seed funding led by FirstMark Capital to build a privacy-focused stablecoin payment network.
• The startup uses zero-knowledge (ZK) technology to allow private transactions on public blockchains, addressing transparency concerns for enterprises.
• Current operations include a self-custodial wallet and a Visa card, serving over 100,000 users across 120 countries.

Strategic Shift Toward Financial Privacy

Originally established as a decentralized database project called Polybase, the startup rebranded to Payy in 2023. This pivot was driven by CEO Sid Gandhi’s observation that the lack of transaction privacy remains a primary barrier for enterprise adoption of stablecoins. Gandhi noted that current on-chain payments are akin to publicizing bank statements, which is unsuitable for high-volume corporate flows.

To solve this, Payy is developing the Payy Network, an Ethereum Layer 2 rollup. This infrastructure utilizes zero-knowledge proofs to shield sensitive data, ensuring that senders, recipients, and transaction amounts remain confidential by default.

Funding and Market Expansion

The latest $6 million seed round, structured as a SAFE with token warrants, closed in December. This brings the company's total capital to $8 million. The round was led by FirstMark Capital, known for early investments in Airbnb and Shopify, with additional participation from Robot Ventures and DBA Crypto.

Payy reports significant early traction, including:

• Over 100,000 active users globally.
• $130 million in annualized transaction volume.
• Partnerships with 12 design partners testing privacy features for large-scale stablecoin flows.

Product Roadmap and Enterprise Focus

The company’s ecosystem includes a self-custodial wallet launched in January 2024 and a Visa card debuted in August 2025 that allows users to spend USDC globally while maintaining privacy.

Looking ahead, Payy plans to launch its network testnet next month, with a full mainnet release scheduled for this summer. While a native token is confirmed, a specific launch date has not been set. The New York-based team of 12 plans to use the new capital to expand its engineering and business development departments, targeting fintech platforms and financial institutions that require private, scalable payment solutions.