Primer secures $100M Series C to expand AI payments infrastructure and scale US operations

Primer secures $100M Series C to fuel US expansion and autonomous AI payments

Primer, a London-based payment startup, has announced a €86.2 million Series C funding round to expand its AI payments and finance platform. The capital will also support its market development in the US, where the company plans to grow revenue to more than a third of total revenue by 2028, supported by plans to hire up to 50 roles in the region. Primer is a financial technology company that provides a unified payment infrastructure, enabling companies to optimize and control every step of the payment journey. The platform offers complete visibility and control across the entire payment operations system, integrating payment orchestration, reconciliation, security, FX, and financial operations services into a single open layer. The company was built to solve a persistent problem: businesses having to rely on multiple fragmented providers and tools throughout the payment journey. Currently, the platform covers the merchant's entire payment lifecycle, recording over 400 data points per transaction and handling more than 95% of customer payment volume on average. The investment round was led by Sofina and Peak XV Partners, and backed by existing investors, including Balderton, Accel, ICONIQ, Tencent, and Speedinvest. With this new investment, the company has raised a total of €146.6 million, with platform adoption spanning more than 30 countries. Primer was founded in 2020 by Gabriel Let Roux (formerly of Braintree) and Paul Anthony (formerly of PayPal), and was initially backed by Balderton and Accel in pre-seed and Series A rounds. Since then, it has secured multiple investment rounds and released new products, such as Fallbacks and Network Tokenization. In 2025, Primer launched its own proprietary agent, AI Companion, alongside Global Accounts, allowing companies to optimize and control finance across their businesses. With the introduction of their AI agent, they aim to solve a new issue specifically created by the rise of AI: data fragmentation across multiple systems, which can ultimately lead to major vulnerability and potentially flawed, widespread decisions. "In the next few years, every payment decision in a large business will be initiated, optimised, or audited by AI. That shift is already underway. The question is whether the data those systems run on is complete, because when you deploy agents across fragmented data, they don't just underperform, they make the wrong decision. That's why the next era of payments can only be built on complete, contextual intelligence. And that's what Primer delivers," said Gabriel Le Roux, CEO and co-founder of Primer. The company reports that it processes billions of transactions annually for enterprise clients such as Get your guide, Dialpad, Printful, Conforama, Printify, Jackpot.com, and Maisons du Monde, among others. This new capital infusion will support the expansion of Primer's AI-native infrastructure, which they expect will become the next-generation foundation that payments and finance teams will run on. The plan is to scale its capabilities to run experiments, optimize performance, and operate autonomously to support contextual, AI-driven decision-making. "We don't want merchants chasing problems or missing opportunities. With full context across every payment, Primer Companion can act on their behalf, knowing what's happening, why, and what to do next." Le Roux added. Aakash Kapoor, principal at Peak XV, stated: "As payments enter a new architectural era, that depth of context becomes critical for AI agents to make decisions." The US represents a massive growth opportunity for the startup, already accounting for roughly one-fifth of Primer's revenue, with annual recurring revenue (ARR) in the region doubling year-on-year.

Peak XV joins UK infrastructure startup Primer's $100 million funding round - The Economic Times

Peak XV Partners has joined a $100 million fundraise by London-headquartered global payments infrastructure startup Primer, the latest in a string of overseas bets by India's largest venture capital firm. The round was led by Belgium-based Sofina, with Peak XV Partners and existing investors Balderton, Accel, ICONIQ, Tencent, and Speedinvest participating, Primer said in a statement on Wednesday. The startup said the round was oversubscribed and will be used to accelerate investments in AI for payments and finance teams and expand in the US, where it expects revenue to account for more than a third of its business by 2028. The investment comes as Indian venture capital firms, led by Peak XV, are increasingly looking at US-based AI and SaaS companies. Earlier this month, Peak XV opened its first office in the US, in San Francisco's Bay Area. ET reported a couple of weeks ago that Peak XV had appointed former Fractal executive Shelly Singh as an operating partner in San Francisco, as the firm sharpens its focus on US deals, especially in AI. Last year, the VC hired Arnav Sahu, a former investor at YCombinator, as a partner in the US. Since mid-2025, Peak XV has backed US-based AI startups, including PostHog, MarqVision, and Hyperbound, ET had reported. It also recently participated in cybersecurity startup Exaforce's $125 million Series B round. What Primer does Primer, founded in 2020 by former Braintree and PayPal executives, provides a unified infrastructure layer for global payments. The company said many merchants still run payments across multiple processors, acquirers and fraud tools, leaving them without a single view of payment flows. The startup's platform sits across a merchant's payment lifecycle, from checkout to payout, captures more than 400 data points per transaction, and manages more than 95% of customer payment volume for the merchant, on average. Primer processes billions of transactions annually for various brands, including GetYourGuide, Dialpad and Printful. The startup said it will use the new capital to expand its AI product, Primer Companion, which was released last year and is used by merchants to answer payment queries and surface contextual insights. The US currently accounts for around a fifth of Primer's revenue, with annual recurring revenue in the region doubling year on year, the company said. It plans to hire up to 50 people in the US to support expansion. "Primer has built a unified infrastructure that manages nearly 100% of payment volume for its clients, giving global enterprises a complete view across multiple processors, acquirers, fraud tools and payment methods," said Aakash Kapoor, principal at Peak XV. "As payments enter a new architectural era, that depth of context becomes critical for AI agents to make decisions."

Primer raises $100 million to bring AI to every payment

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community. The round was led by Belgian investment company Sofina with participation from Peak XV Partners and existing investors including Balderton, Accel, ICONIQ, Tencent, and Speedinvest. The investment brings the total funds raised by Primer to $170 million. Primer was founded in 2020 to provide a single, unified infrastructure layer for merchant payments, giving finance teams more visibility and control over payment flows. Today, the platform sits across a merchant's entire payments lifecycle, from checkout to payout, capturing over 400 data points per transaction and managing more than 95% of customer payment volume on average. Processing billions of transactions annually for brands like GetYourGuide, Dialpad and Printful, it provides businesses with a complete view of their payment flows. With the platform in place, it sees AI as the next step in further optimising its capabilities. "In the next few years, every payment decision in a large business will be initiated, optimized or audited by AI. That shift is already underway," says Gabriel Le Roux, CEO and co-founder of Primer. "The question is whether the data those systems run on is complete because when you deploy agents across fragmented data, they don't just underperform, they make the wrong decision." Following the raise, Primer is doubling down on its investment in AI capabilities, including expansion of its proprietary AI agent - Primer Companion. "We don't want merchants chasing problems or missing opportunities. With full context across every payment, Primer Companion can act on their behalf, knowing what's happening, why, and what to do next," Le Roux added. Funds will also be deployed to finance the firrm's expansion axcross the US, which currently accounts for a fifth of revenue. The company plans to grow US revenue to more than a third of the business by 2028 and will hire up to 50 roles in the region to support that expansion.