Walapay announced in an October 1, 2026 release that it raised a $4.6 million seed round led by Generative Ventures, with participation from Commerce Ventures, Polygon, and several other fund
Walapay announced in a release distributed via Business Wire on October 1, 2026 that it has closed a $4.6 million seed round led by Generative Ventures, with additional participation from Commerce Ventures, Polygon, Verda Ventures, NGC Ventures, FGV Capital, AAF, Jsquare, Knollwood, and Big Brain Holdings.
The company builds global payments infrastructure aimed at the roughly $190 trillion in cross-border payments transacted worldwide each year, a market it says remains underserved by local payment rails in many countries. Walapay reports $2.5 billion in annualized total payment volume processed across more than 180 countries and over 60 currencies, figures the company points to as evidence that its local-rail approach is gaining real commercial traction rather than remaining a pilot-stage product.
Walapay was founded by brothers Tom and Dimitri Borgers, with Tom serving as Chief Executive Officer. The company counts Kast, Nuvei, and Bastion among its customers, businesses that rely on Walapay’s infrastructure to move money across borders using local payment methods rather than routing every transaction through slower and more expensive traditional correspondent banking channels.
Lex Sokolin, Managing Partner at Generative Ventures, said Walapay “is a rare team building that full stack themselves, owning the licensing and banking relationships” needed to operate across so many jurisdictions, a structural advantage that reduces Walapay’s dependence on third-party partners for the regulatory approvals that typically bottleneck cross-border payments expansion. Vivek Krishnamurthy, a partner at Commerce Ventures, added that Walapay “is one of the rare platforms we’ve seen with real local rail coverage across multiple regions.”
Chief Executive Tom Borgers framed the company’s mission around bridging two sides of global commerce, saying “it’s important for us to bring both sides together seamlessly, so businesses can move money globally.” The seed round gives Walapay fresh capital to continue building out its local payment rail coverage and licensing footprint as it competes with both traditional cross-border payment providers and a growing field of crypto-adjacent payments startups chasing the same underserved corridors.
Walapay’s decision to own its own licensing and banking relationships in each market, rather than leaning entirely on third-party partners, sets it apart from payment startups that expand faster but carry more regulatory dependency. That approach has taken longer to build but gives Walapay more direct control over compliance and settlement speed in the more than 180 countries where it already operates, a factor investors cited as central to backing the round.
This post first appeared in Walapay Raises $4.6 Million Seed Round to Expand Global Payments Infrastructure
