ZBD Raises $40M to Embed Real-Money Payments Directly Into Video Games

ZBD Raises $40 Million as Real-Money Payments Transfer Directly Into Video Games

Payments infrastructure firm ZBD has secured $40 million in Collection C financing, led by Blockstream Capital Companions, because it accelerates efforts to embed real-money funds straight into video video games and digital platforms.

The funding spherical displays rising confidence in ZBD’s place as a licensed, vertically built-in funds supplier constructed particularly for gaming — at a time when publishers are more and more rethinking how cash strikes inside interactive experiences.

A Structural Hole within the Games Economic system

For many years, funds in video games have been designed nearly solely round pay-ins: purchases, subscriptions, and in-app spending. Whereas monetisation techniques have grown extra subtle, the power to transfer cash out to gamers — immediately, compliantly, and at scale — has remained restricted.

That imbalance has develop into extra seen as rewarded gameplay, creator economies, and user-generated content material fashions develop. Gamers more and more anticipate tangible worth in return for time, consideration, and talent — not simply digital forex.

ZBD’s mannequin is constructed round closing that hole.

Payments Constructed for Payouts, Not Simply Purchases

ZBD makes use of the Bitcoin Lightning Community to energy real-money embedded funds, enabling video games and apps to ship instantaneous payouts in fiat forex, bitcoin, and reward playing cards. In contrast to conventional rewards techniques, these funds are native to gameplay reasonably than bolted on by way of third-party workarounds.

The corporate already processes greater than 120 million transactions yearly and has doubled the variety of video games built-in with its software program growth equipment over the previous 12 months. Builders together with TapNation, Fumb Games, and PlayEmber use ZBD’s infrastructure to distribute tens of thousands and thousands in rewards to gamers.

What differentiates ZBD just isn’t the novelty of crypto rails, however the regulatory and operational framework constructed round them.

Regulation as a Aggressive Benefit

In 2025, ZBD turned one of many first firms to safe each MiCAR and EMI licences within the Netherlands, enabling regulated fiat and crypto fee companies throughout the European Financial Space. In parallel, the corporate holds Cash Transmitter Licences throughout the US.

That licensing stack permits ZBD to function as a full funds supplier reasonably than a slim rewards instrument. Its capabilities now prolong to card issuance, financial institution transfers, digital IBANs, and forex trade — infrastructure sometimes unavailable to recreation builders with out partnering with a number of monetary establishments.

This compliance-first strategy has positioned ZBD as considered one of a small group of suppliers ready to provide real-money gaming funds at scale with out regulatory ambiguity.

Why the Collection C Issues Now

The $40 million Collection C is much less about experimentation and extra about scale. ZBD has already established product-market slot in cellular payouts, and the brand new funding helps enlargement throughout console, PC, and creator-driven platforms.

In accordance to Ben Cousens, the corporate’s focus is on simplifying monetary techniques which have traditionally been gradual, fragmented, and troublesome for builders to management — changing them with a single, built-in funds layer.

For Nicolas Model, ZBD’s mixture of native Bitcoin funds know-how and hard-to-replicate licensing throughout jurisdictions units it aside in an more and more crowded funds panorama.

Turning Payments Into a Strategic Functionality

ZBD’s longer-term ambition extends past rewards. Throughout 2026, the corporate plans to roll out a full, compliance-ready funds stack that permits publishers to personal and management cash motion inside their video games — reasonably than outsourcing it to third events.

That shift reframes funds from a value centre right into a strategic instrument. Actual-money transactions may be embedded into gameplay, creator tipping, user-generated content material, and dwell experiences, enabling new income streams and deeper engagement loops.

As Simon Cowell has described it, the aim is to generate profits motion a local a part of play reasonably than an exterior system layered on prime.

Infrastructure, Not Hypothesis

In an business usually fast to chase tendencies, ZBD’s rise displays a quieter shift: the convergence of funds, regulation, and gameplay design. The $40 million Collection C underscores investor perception that the subsequent part of gaming innovation will likely be pushed much less by monetisation methods and extra by how worth strikes between gamers, creators, and platforms.

If real-money interactions are to develop into a regular function of digital experiences, the infrastructure enabling them will matter as a lot because the video games themselves. ZBD is positioning itself to sit at that intersection — not as a rewards experiment, however as core monetary plumbing for the video games financial system.