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Lightnet

“Can a multi-jurisdiction licensed payments network become the default settlement layer connecting fiat banking and stablecoin rails across Asia-Pacific?”

Founded2018
HQSingapore
FoundersChatchaval Jiaravanon, Tridbodi Arunanondchai
Total raised~$86M+ disclosed
Latest roundLater Stage VC, $5M
IndustryFintech / Cross-border payments
The story

Lightnet was founded in 2018 as a Stellar-blockchain-based cross-border remittance network targeting the underbanked across Asia-Pacific, in close partnership with Velo Labs. Over time it has broadened its product footprint to position itself as regulated payments infrastructure for institutions — covering fiat and digital-asset settlement, on/off-ramps, merchant payouts, and corporate FX/treasury — across a multi-jurisdiction license stack (Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia). The strategic bet is bridging Web2 compliance with Web3 stablecoin rails for institutional clients rather than a consumer remittance app.

Last 12 months
2024
Product timeline
2018
Founded in Singapore by Chatchaval Jiaravanon and Tridbodi Arunanondchai with backing from Charoen Pokphand Group.· pivot
2020
Raised $31.2M Series A; launched cross-border remittance infrastructure built on Stellar blockchain via Velo Labs partnership.· banking
2022
Secured $50M capital commitment from LDA Capital (up to $100M) to expand Asia-Pacific cross-border infrastructure and Web3 payment rails.· banking
2024
Partnered with WeLab on a consortium bid for a Thailand virtual bank license.· banking
2024
Processed $15B+ annualized volume across 200k+ merchants and 100+ financial institution partners.· banking
Regulated entities
5
regulatory licences held by Lightnet
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
4 layers disclosed in Lightnet’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Lightnet cross-border settlement (self-operated)Lightnet merchant payments network (self-operated)
Banking / BaaS
in the full report
FX & payouts
in the full report
Crypto
in the full report
Accounting gap: none
3 more providers across 3 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.