ZBD Raises $40 Million as Real-Money Payments Move Directly Into Video Games
Payments infrastructure company ZBD has secured $40 million in Series C financing, led by Blockstream Capital Partners, as it accelerates efforts to embed real-money payments directly into video games and digital platforms.
The funding round reflects growing confidence in ZBD’s position as a licensed, vertically integrated payments provider built specifically for gaming — at a time when publishers are increasingly rethinking how money moves inside interactive experiences.
A Structural Gap in the Games Economy
For decades, payments in games have been designed almost exclusively around pay-ins: purchases, subscriptions, and in-app spending. While monetisation systems have grown more sophisticated, the ability to move money out to players — instantly, compliantly, and at scale — has remained limited.
That imbalance has become more visible as rewarded gameplay, creator economies, and user-generated content models expand. Players increasingly expect tangible value in return for time, attention, and skill — not just virtual currency.
ZBD’s model is built around closing that gap.
Payments Built for Payouts, Not Just Purchases
ZBD uses the Bitcoin Lightning Network to power real-money embedded payments, enabling games and apps to deliver instant payouts in fiat currency, bitcoin, and gift cards. Unlike traditional rewards systems, these payments are native to gameplay rather than bolted on through third-party workarounds.
The company already processes more than 120 million transactions annually and has doubled the number of games integrated with its software development kit over the past year. Developers including TapNation, Fumb Games, and PlayEmber use ZBD’s infrastructure to distribute tens of millions in rewards to players.
What differentiates ZBD is not the novelty of crypto rails, but the regulatory and operational framework built around them.
Regulation as a Competitive Advantage
In 2025, ZBD became one of the first companies to secure both MiCAR and EMI licences in the Netherlands, enabling regulated fiat and crypto payment services across the European Economic Area. In parallel, the company holds Money Transmitter Licences across the United States.
That licensing stack allows ZBD to operate as a full payments provider rather than a narrow rewards tool. Its capabilities now extend to card issuance, bank transfers, virtual IBANs, and currency exchange — infrastructure typically unavailable to game developers without partnering with multiple financial institutions.
This compliance-first approach has positioned ZBD as one of a small group of providers able to offer real-money gaming payments at scale without regulatory ambiguity.
Why the Series C Matters Now
The $40 million Series C is less about experimentation and more about scale. ZBD has already established product-market fit in mobile payouts, and the new funding supports expansion across console, PC, and creator-driven platforms.
According to Ben Cousens, the company’s focus is on simplifying financial systems that have historically been slow, fragmented, and difficult for developers to control — replacing them with a single, integrated payments layer.
For Nicolas Brand, ZBD’s combination of native Bitcoin payments technology and hard-to-replicate licensing across jurisdictions sets it apart in an increasingly crowded payments landscape.
Turning Payments Into a Strategic Capability
ZBD’s longer-term ambition extends beyond rewards. During 2026, the company plans to roll out a full, compliance-ready payments stack that allows publishers to own and control money movement inside their games — rather than outsourcing it to third parties.
That shift reframes payments from a cost centre into a strategic tool. Real-money transactions can be embedded into gameplay, creator tipping, user-generated content, and live experiences, enabling new revenue streams and deeper engagement loops.
As Simon Cowell has described it, the goal is to make money movement a native part of play rather than an external system layered on top.
Infrastructure, Not Speculation
In an industry often quick to chase trends, ZBD’s rise reflects a quieter shift: the convergence of payments, regulation, and gameplay design. The $40 million Series C underscores investor belief that the next phase of gaming innovation will be driven less by monetisation tricks and more by how value moves between players, creators, and platforms.
If real-money interactions are to become a standard feature of digital experiences, the infrastructure enabling them will matter as much as the games themselves. ZBD is positioning itself to sit at that intersection — not as a rewards experiment, but as core financial plumbing for the games economy.
