Synopsis
The capital raise, which was led by investors including Accel, Lightspeed Faction, M13, Northzone, and Pantera, comes amid growing interest in using stablecoins to modernize cross-border payments and overcome high costs and transfer delays. The funding round values OpenFX at about $500 million, according to a person familiar with the matter.The round also saw participation from Lightspeed, Faction VC, M13, Northzone and Pantera.
Armed with the fresh funds, the startup wants to build out real-time foreign exchange settlement rails using stablecoins. The company plans to deploy the fresh capital to expand into Southeast Asia, where domestic payment systems such as India's UPI, Singapore's PayNow and Thailand's PromptPay coexist but cross-border payments have a lot of friction.
In a statement, the company said that it is also looking to deepen its presence in Latin America, particularly across currency corridors such as the Mexican peso, Brazilian real, Colombian peso and Argentine peso, where stablecoin adoption for cross-border payments is rising.
Founded in 2024 by FalconX cofounder Prabhakar Reddy, OpenFX is building infrastructure that connects traditional banking systems with new-age payment rails using stablecoins as an intermediary layer.
The usage of stablecoins will enable near-instant forex conversions and cross-border settlements.
OpenFX said it has scaled annualised payment volumes to over $45 billion (Rs 3.7 lakh crore) within a short span, driven by demand from fintech firms, neobanks, remittance companies and global payroll platforms.
Its client list includes remittance firm MoneyGram, stablecoin infrastructure player Yellow Card and payment firm Alfred, which are seeking faster and cheaper alternatives to legacy forex systems.
"The global forex market processes more than $200 trillion annually, yet the core settlement infrastructure remains largely unchanged from decades ago," said Prabhakar Reddy, founder and chief executive officer, OpenFX. "We built OpenFX to deliver real-time, institutional-grade liquidity that reduces risk, lowers costs and allows capital to move as efficiently as the businesses behind it."
Despite the rise of domestic real-time payment systems, cross-border transfers continue to face delays and high costs. Industry estimates suggest settlements typically take two to five business days, with conversion costs ranging between 50 and 150 basis points.
Reddy, who is a graduate from BITS Pilani had earlier founded Nfusion, which BookMyShow acquired. Reddy worked as an investor with Accel partners in India before setting up FalconX in the US in 2018. Reddy went on to start OpenFX in 2024.
The platform is building and optimising key Asia corridors, including India–UAE and India–Southeast Asia routes, where trade, payroll, and remittance flows are substantial. The firm said that a significant chunk of its around 100 employees are based in India, working in functions across product technology and engineering.
While the Indian cross-border ecosystem is seeing a lot of regulatory action with many payment firms getting the licence to operate in the sector, stablecoin usage in the space is still seen with caution.
Multiple industry insiders told ET that the regulatory scrutiny in the sector is so high, that Indian payment firms are leveraging the current regulated fund transfer mechanisms to operate in the sector. However globally players like Aspora, OpenFX and many others have received investor attention as this space is up for disruption.
Aspora closed a $93 million funding round in June 2025, led by Sequoia Capital, Greylock and others.
