Top Fintechs Disrupting Payments with AI & Stablecoins

The payments sector is rapidly evolving, with numerous startups spearheading the transformation of banking practices in areas like stablecoins and artificial intelligence. Stablecoins are gaining importance for banks, especially as Congress considers legislation for a regulatory framework. Walmart and Amazon are reportedly exploring issuing their own stablecoins in the U.S. as payment alternatives.

Crunchbase data indicates over 8,600 fintech startups and nearly 2,400 payments startups are in development, having collectively raised approximately $257 billion and $96 billion, respectively. Startups are crucial for banks, offering services and becoming potential acquisition targets, exemplified by Stripe's acquisition of the stablecoin payments platform Bridge.

Here are five early-stage startups that industry experts suggest banks should monitor in 2025:

Darwinium

Founders: Alisdair Faulkner, Ananth Gundabattula, Ben Davey, Caleb Moore, and Colin Goldie
HQ: San Francisco, with operations in Australia and the U.K.
Website: www.darwinium.com
Year founded: March 2021
Use case for banks: Darwinium provides a fraud prevention platform that combines automated fraud detection with traditional methods, offering real-time visibility and control over digital interactions across web, apps, and APIs.
Funding: $28 million in venture capital
Biggest investors: Include U.S. Venture Partners, Blackbird, Airtree, Accomplice, and Naval Ravikant
Customers: Global companies across industries, including neobanks, fintechs, marketplaces, and gaming companies.
Major milestones: Darwinium recently expanded into the U.S., establishing its headquarters in San Francisco.
Growth plans: The company is expanding its U.S. operations. CEO Alisdair Faulkner noted that revenue this year will increase fivefold from 2024.

Skyfire

Founders: Amir Sarhangi and Craig DeWitt
HQ: San Francisco
Website: https://skyfire.xyz/
Year founded: 2022
Use case for banks: Skyfire is a payments and identity platform that uses AI to process payments, verify identities, and access services without human intervention.
Funding: $9.5 million in seed capital
Investors: Include Coinbase Ventures, a16z CSX, Neuberger Berman, Brevan Howard Digital, Intersection Growth Partners, DRW, Inception Capital, Arrington Capital, Red Beard Ventures, Sfermion, Circle, FBG, Gemini, Crossbeam Venture Partners, Everyrealm, Draper Associates, Arca, and Ripple.
Customers: Primarily agent developers and agent platforms, including some banks.
Major milestones: Launched the platform in August 2024, with over 10,000 developers using Skyfire.
Growth plans: Skyfire plans to release a more scalable platform version and form partnerships with financial institutions and internet infrastructure providers, according to co-founder Craig DeWitt.

Crossmint

Founders: Rodri Fernández Touza and Alfonso Gómez-Jordana
HQ: New York and Miami
Website: https://www.crossmint.com/
Founded: March 2022
Use case for banks: Crossmint offers an all-in-one platform for companies and AI agents to use stablecoin and blockchain rails, including wallets, payments, and tokenization.
Funding: $24 million in venture capital.
Investors: Include Ribbit Capital, Nyca Partners, First Round, Franklin Templeton, and Lightspeed Faction.
Customers: Dozens of Fortune 500 companies, a top-20 bank by assets under management, and a top-five remittance company, according to co-founder Rodri Fernández Touza.
Major milestones: Subscription revenue increased by 1,100% in the past year, with over 40,000 companies and developers using the platform across more than 40 blockchains.
Growth Plans: The company intends to continue acquiring customers, following the launch of its agentic commerce toolkit. It also recently launched an open-source toolkit for launching fintech apps or embedding financial services.

Merge Money

Founder: Kebbie Sebastian
HQ: London
Website: www.merge.money
Year founded: 2022
Use case for banks: Merge Money provides an API-first platform with a stablecoin payment infrastructure for businesses.
Funding: $9.5 million in venture capital
Investors: Include Coinbase and Octopus Ventures
Customers: B2B marketplaces, fintechs, corporate treasurers, licensed crypto companies, and European banks.
Major milestones: Merge received its Electronic Money Institution (EMI) and Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) licenses and expanded coverage of local instant payments to over 75 countries.
Growth plans: The company plans to expand geographically, including into the U.S., according to founder Kebbie Sebastian.

Conduit Technology

Founder: Kirill Gertman
HQ: Boston
Website: https://conduitpay.com
Year founded: 2021
Use case for banks: Conduit Technology facilitates cross-border payments in stablecoins or local currencies as an alternative to SWIFT, aiming to provide faster, cheaper, and more reliable transactions.
Funding: $53 million in venture capital
Investors: Include Dragonfly, Altos Ventures, Helios Digital Ventures, and Portage Ventures.
Customers: Banks, fintechs, large multinational corporations, and others.
Major milestones: In 2024, transaction volume grew 16 times to over $10 billion. Conduit Technology also signed an agreement with Braza Group, which owns Brazil's largest foreign exchange bank, according to CEO Kirill Gertman.
Growth plans: Conduit Technology is targeting small to medium banks in the U.S. and plans to integrate its platform with major bank core providers.