“Can proprietary sound-wave payment infrastructure become the default connectivity layer for contactless, offline-capable digital payments across emerging markets and IoT devices?”
Founded in 2013 as a proximity-based payment technology company, ToneTag pioneered the use of audio frequencies (sound waves) to transmit encrypted payment data between devices, removing reliance on NFC, Bluetooth, or internet connectivity. The company expanded from a pure payment protocol enabler into agentic AI payments and voice-based UPI services (VoiceSe), positioning itself as a deep-tech payments infrastructure provider for emerging markets including India, Indonesia, and Brazil. It has grown to process over $3 billion per month and is now targeting IoT device payments, EV sector payments, and cross-device commerce as its next growth vectors — backed by Amazon and Qualcomm Ventures.
Tonetag processes payments through ToneTag Sound Wave Payment Protocol (self-operated) and UPI (VoiceSe, self-operated). Disclosed money-movement rails: UPI.
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 2 layers in Tonetag's stack: Payments / PSP (ToneTag Sound Wave Payment Protocol (self-operated) and UPI (VoiceSe, self-operated)); Money movement (UPI).
Tonetag was founded by Kumar Abhishek and Vivek Singh and is founded in 2013, headquartered in Bengaluru, India.
Tonetag has raised undisclosed in total (latest round: Series B2 extension, 2026).
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Tonetag and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.