Fintech Startup Payment Labs Raises $3.25 Million Seed Round to Power Payments in Sports, Creator Economy, Esports, and More

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LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 26, 2025--

Payment Labs, a global fintech leader specializing in payment solutions, today announced it has closed a $3.25 million oversubscribed seed round to simplify complex payment processes for high-growth industries such as sports, esports, and the creator economy. Led by Aperture Venture Capital with participation by Capital Eleven, ESPMX and other investors, the round reflects the growing market demand for Payment Labs' purpose-built SaaS platform, which empowers businesses to seamlessly manage global payments, including payments in 150+ currencies across 180+ countries.

“In esports, I became very familiar with the international nature of competitions, the compliance and regulatory issues that those create, the need to track down at times hundreds of individual payees, and more,” said Han Park, CEO, Payment Labs. “Those lessons translated directly to Payment Labs’ work in sports and other industries, where we've found success in eliminating similar pain points with frictionless solutions. Now, we’re looking forward to expanding those offerings and scaling our team to continue to make payments faster, easier, and compliant.”

Payment Labs offers a comprehensive 360° API-driven platform for fast, secure payments for payins and payouts. The Payment Labs platform also incorporates tax and regulatory compliance, payments tracking, reporting tools, and multiple payment methods. This investment round will accelerate the company's mission to streamline and automate payins and payouts for businesses, with customized solutions for things like royalties, revenue share, and business services that are not typically provided by traditional platforms.

With customers including Microsoft, SEGA, X Games, The Snow League, Arnold Sports, AVP, and more, Payment Labs has processed more than $50 million and built a foundation as the premier fintech solution for detangling complicated payment processes through industry-specific compliance and support.

“The Payment Labs leadership team fits our ideal founder profile – which we call Contrarian Technocrat – in terms of their ability to rapidly go from vision to value,” said Garnet Heraman, General Partner of Aperture VC. “Together we envision massive upside with evolving industry trends in global sports competitions, NIL, and the creator economy.”

The funding news follows the recent hiring of Paul Brewer, a former revenue leader for The Sporting News, Rival, and ESL, as Payment Labs’ Executive Vice President of Sales & Sports Partnerships, showcasing Payment Labs’ commitment to the sports space and further embedding itself in the industry. For more information on Payment Labs, please visit paymentlabs.io.

About Payment Labs

Co-founded by Han Park and Ronak Desai, Payment Labs is an innovative financial technology solution that brings speed, efficiency, and compliance to payments. Its proprietary SaaS platform was purpose-built to solve common industry pain points with a streamlined, secure, and tax compliant platform for global payouts. Already an essential partner to forward-thinking and emerging sports properties X Games, The Snow League, Arnold Sports, AVP, APP, PDGA, and more, Payment Labs is positioning itself as a leader in the future of sports business operations.

About Aperture Venture Capital

Aperture Venture Capital is a seed stage investor in startups leveraging financial innovation to help businesses and individuals thrive. Our debut fund was launched in 2021 with investments from global financial technology giants FIS, Truist, PayPal, Bank of America, Progressive, MassMutual, as well as NextEra Energy. Aperture's investing platform is purpose-built to invest with expertise across the full spectrum of financial services including banking, payments, insurance, security, compliance and enterprise SaaS. We invest in the next generation of technology leaders forging the prosperous future we envision for all. For more information, visit aperturevc.com.

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KEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA CALIFORNIA

INDUSTRY KEYWORD: BANKING SOFTWARE ESPORTS SPORTS PROFESSIONAL SERVICES GENERAL SPORTS FINTECH PAYMENTS TECHNOLOGY OTHER COMMUNICATIONS COMMUNICATIONS FINANCE OTHER TECHNOLOGY

SOURCE: Payment Labs

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PUB: 08/26/2025 08:03 AM/DISC: 08/26/2025 08:02 AM

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