Payy, a stablecoin startup building a privacy-focused payments network using zero-knowledge technology, raised $6 million in a seed funding round. FirstMark Capital led the round. Additional investors included Robot Ventures and DBA Crypto. Payy defines itself as a platform that enables private stablecoin transactions by default, shielding details like sender, receiver, and amounts.
Funding Overview
Payy closed its seed round in December using a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) that included token warrants. FirstMark Capital led the investment, with participation from Robot Ventures and DBA Crypto. Payy co-founder and CEO Sid Gandhi did not disclose the company’s valuation. With this round, Payy’s total funding reaches $8 million. The company pivoted from its earlier project, Polybase, in 2023, which was a web3 database initiative. Payy now focuses on privacy-focused stablecoin payments.
About the Company
Payy provides a self-custodial wallet along with a Visa card, allowing users to spend USDC anywhere Visa is accepted. Transactions conducted onchain remain private. The company is also developing the Payy Network, an Ethereum Layer 2 rollup that leverages zero-knowledge proofs to ensure transaction privacy.
Payy launched its wallet in January 2024, followed by the release of its Visa card in August 2025. The company announced the Payy Network last month, with a testnet scheduled to launch next month. A mainnet rollout is planned for this summer.
Payy serves more than 100,000 users across 120 countries. The platform processes around $130 million in annualized transaction volume. Payy targets enterprise customers like financial institutions and fintech platforms. Sid Gandhi stated: “We have a dozen design partners starting to build on our testnet to add privacy to billions of dollars of stablecoin flows.”
Payy is headquartered in New York and operates with a team of 12 people. The company plans to expand hiring across business development and engineering roles. Its revenue is generated through onramping fees, gas fees, and enterprise contracts.
Investors
- FirstMark Capital led the seed round; FirstMark Capital backed Airbnb, Shopify, and Pinterest early.
- Robot Ventures
- DBA Crypto
Sid Gandhi noted: “We were preempted by FirstMark.”
Market Context
Sid Gandhi highlighted stablecoin privacy gaps. He said: “Today, sending a stablecoin payment is like posting your bank statement on a public website. Every amount, every recipient, every balance, visible to anyone.” Enterprises avoid onchain payments due to visibility. Payy addresses this with zero-knowledge technology from its Polybase origins. Payy targets stablecoin flows for financial institutions and fintechs, aligning with broader funding activity such as Enlivex Secures $21M across emerging innovation sectors. The startup accesses technology-forward companies via FirstMark Capital.
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