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ZBD $40M Series C set to bring real-money payments, rewards natively into video games

Thursday, January 22, 2026 — 19:44:56 (UTC)

ZBD ANNOUNCES $40M SERIES C TO BRING REAL-MONEY PAYMENTS AND REWARDS NATIVELY INTO VIDEO GAMES image.png

HOBOKEN, NEW JERSEY – 22 JANUARY 2026 – ZBD, the payments innovator powering real-money transactions for games and apps, today announced it has secured USD $40M in Series C financing commitments from Blockstream Capital Partners (“BCP”), accelerating its growth as the only fully-licensed, vertically-integrated payments provider built for gaming.

ZBD uses the Lightning Network to power real-money embedded payments at scale, creating a frictionless, compliant money movement layer. The company already processes more than 120 million transactions annually and has doubled the number of games integrated with its SDK over the past 12 months, driven by adoption from developers including TapNation, Fumb Games and PlayEmber. These partners use ZBD’s infrastructure at scale to deliver tens of millions in fiat currencies, bitcoin, and gift card rewards to gamers.

In the $189 billion video games industry, where payments innovation is traditionally focused on maximizing revenue from player purchases (pay-ins), ZBD takes a novel approach. The company has also shown that instant real-money earnings (payouts) can be embedded natively into gameplay to boost lifetime value (LTV) and create a long lasting two-way value exchange with gamers. While the games industry already leverages rewarded user acquisition and monetization mechanics, ZBD enables embedded, instant, real-money payments – something other existing technology cannot support.

Ben Cousens, CSO of ZBD, said: “Our mission is simple: to make money work in games by providing all-in-one payments technology to publishers and developers. The current financial and reward systems in games are slow and unwieldy, but ZBD is bringing the power of the Lightning network to deliver rewards at speed, while giving developers the flexibility to choose how they are presented. We’re happy that BCP see the value in our mission and our tech, and we’re delighted to welcome them on board.”

Nicolas Brand of BCP, said: “We have been following ZBD for many years and believe it has achieved a rare pairing of native Bitcoin payments technology with an expansive and hard-to-replicate licensing framework across key regulatory regimes. This places ZBD among a very small group of credible Bitcoin payment service providers. We strongly believe in its mission to drive the convergence of payments and the Bitcoin Lightning Network, particularly within digital-first ecosystems such as gaming.”

The future of gaming payments

In 2025, ZBD became one of the first companies to secure both MiCAR and EMI licenses in the Netherlands, enabling regulated fiat and crypto payment services across the European Economic Area. This, in addition to Money Transmitter Licenses in the United States, expands ZBD’s financial capabilities far beyond rewards to card issuance, bank transfers, virtual IBAN creation, and currency exchanges.

During 2026, a complete, compliance-ready payments stack will come to life - giving console, PC, and mobile game publishers full ownership of money movement in their games and turning payments from a cost centre into a strategic capability that delivers deeper experiences for gamers. This enables real-money transactions across the entire creator economy, from games to user-generated content platforms and livestream tipping, unlocking new value and revenue streams and making money movement a native part of play.

Simon Cowell, CEO & Co-Founder of ZBD, said: “ZBD is the payments infrastructure for the future of video games and virtual worlds, where real money moves natively through content. By giving developers and publishers full control of their payments infrastructure, we’re maximizing their revenue and creating additional value streams with new, real-money experiences that can be deeply embedded into gameplay.”

ZBD’s Series C unlocks significant capability for scale, as the company seeks to capitalize on its current product market fit in mobile payouts while building out more comprehensive, industry-wide solutions for all game publishers. This also includes expanding licensing globally and growing its commercial footprint across North America, Europe, LATAM and APAC to increase developer adoption. New developer tooling, platform enhancements and additional game integrations are scheduled throughout 2026.

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Source: Company press release.

Categories: Announcement