Dots Raises $8.9M to Double Down on Global Payout Infrastructure
Hey Payments Fanatic!
Quick one that caught my attention today.
While everyone talks about acquiring payments, another layer of the stack keeps scaling quietly: payouts.
Dots just raised $8.9M in a Series A led by DCM Ventures, with participation from Y Combinator.
Dots isn’t trying to help businesses take money. It helps them send it. Marketplaces, gig platforms, service businesses… anyone dealing with large-scale disbursements across rails and geographies.
Bank transfers, alternative payout methods, onboarding, compliance, fraud controls, bundled into one orchestration layer.
And here’s what stood out to me: $150M+ in monthly payouts, 400% YoY revenue growth, and already profitable.
With this round, Dots plans to expand beyond payouts into broader financial workflows, card processing, AP, and AR, effectively moving toward a more complete financial stack.
P.S. The Stripe–PayPal story just shifted.
Despite earlier reports, PayPal is not in talks to sell itself. Not to Stripe. Not to anyone. According to an exclusive from Senator, there are no active negotiations.
Instead, PayPal has reportedly been working with bankers for months to prepare for something else entirely: a potential activist investor campaign or even an unwanted takeover attempt, following its sharp share price decline and ongoing leadership transition.
Reality check: even if Stripe were interested, a deal of this size would be highly complex. Private buyer. Massive financing is required. And you can’t easily acquire a public company that doesn’t want to be acquired.
Scroll down to see what else is moving in Payments today 👇
Cheers,
INSIGHTS
➡️ Triple-A Recognised as Emerging Leader in Stablecoin Managed Payments. Stablecoins represent a $17.9 trillion cross-border opportunity, with upside of more than $25 trillion, according to FXC Intelligence’s 2026 Buyer’s Guide. Triple-A highlights that B2B flows dominate, with success now driven by compliance, liquidity, licensing, and integration.
📈 2025 Annual Letter: The Power of the Long View by Checkout.com. Celebrating 20 years in payments and 15 years leading Checkout.com, the CEO, Guillaume Pousaz, reflects on continuous learning as key to growth, reaffirming the company’s mission to solve complex merchant payment challenges through innovation. He notes that Checkout.com is now stronger, more efficient, and back to profitability.
NEWS
🇸🇬 Mastercard announces appointment of Minsook Cho as Country Manager for Singapore. In this role, she will lead and oversee the company’s strategic direction and business operations in the market. She also partners with regional and global clients headquartered in Singapore, supporting cross-market and strategic initiatives.
🇺🇸 Global payout platform Dots secures $8.9m Series A. With the new funding, Dots said it plans to expand its offering beyond payouts, ultimately adding broader financial capabilities such as credit card processing, accounts payable, and accounts receivable.
🇺🇸 Block stock surges over +20% after announcing plans to cut over 40% of its workforce. In a message to employees, Dorsey said the company will reduce headcount from more than 10,000 to just under 6,000, impacting over 4,000 workers.
🇦🇺 Apple battles Australian banks over digital payments access. Australia’s largest bank has urged lawmakers to force Apple to grant third parties free access to its mobile payments technologies to inject more “competitive pressure” into a segment of the market dominated by big tech platforms.
🇫🇷 Worldline disposal programme nearly complete, it says after hitting annual results targets. The Paris-listed company reported a 2.4% decline in annual revenue to 4.5 billion euros ($5.3 billion), including the digital services business that is due to be sold as part of the disposal programme.
🇨🇴 Nubank manager questioned Bancolombia’s collapse and called for strict rules for Bre-B. Marcela Torres, manager of Nu Colombia, described it as unacceptable that an entity can go down for days and, by extension, bring down the system.
🇸🇻 Tether says it has frozen $4.2 billion of its stablecoin over crime links. El Salvador-based stablecoin issuer Tether is able to remotely freeze its tokens held in users' crypto wallets when asked to do so by law enforcement. Read more
🇦🇷 Visa completes acquisition of Prisma and Newpay. Prisma provides credit, debit, and prepaid card issuer processing. Newpay is a multi-network infrastructure provider that operates real-time payment services. Together, these companies provide compelling payment products and services serving millions of consumers and businesses throughout Argentina.
🇬🇧 Paysafe announces changes to its Board of Directors. Paysafe has appointed four new non-executive directors, Rupert Keeley, Pete Thompson, Karin Timpone, and Edward Wertheim, effective February 26, 2026, bringing expertise in payments, technology, product innovation, marketing, and investment.
🇯🇵 SBI and Startale to launch Japan's first trust Yen Stablecoin under Japanese law. The initiative aims to expand the use of the yen in digital finance and cross-border settlement. The stablecoin, named JPYSC, is expected to launch in the second quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory approval.
🇺🇸 Onramper expands Global Payments coverage with integration to Kraken via Payward Ramp. The integration with Payward Ramp enables Onramper partners to deliver crypto access to their customers with minimal engineering lift, reducing the complexity traditionally associated with launching compliant fiat-to-crypto flows.
🇺🇸 Solana Payments goes live with instant settlement features. The network launched payments.org, a dedicated hub designed to showcase real-time stablecoin transactions on the Solana mainnet. The platform lets developers and users experience live transfers, not just test demos.
🇳🇱 Miracle Pay begins global rollout, enabling merchants to accept cryptocurrency payments at the point of sale through existing payment workflows and infrastructure. The rollout is focused on expanding this version globally, anchored in usability, trust, and repeatable merchant adoption.
🇺🇸 PayPal might not be looking to sell itself. The company has been working with bankers in preparation for a possible activist investor campaign or a hostile takeover. Continue reading
🇺🇸 MoonPay, M0, and PayPal announce PYUSDx, an infrastructure platform for PYUSD-backed stablecoins. PYUSDx is designed to help builders launch and scale application-specific stablecoins while significantly reducing the technical and operational overhead of getting started.
GOLDEN NUGGET
Have you ever found yourself conversing with industry professionals, and it feels like they’re all talking in code?
This one never gets old: a comprehensive Open Banking alphabet 👇
Ready, set, go – from A all the way to Z! 🏁
A: API (Application Programming Interface
B: BaaS
C: Card Scheme
D: Data Standard
E: E-Wallet
F: Financial Conduct Authority
G: Greater Financial Transparency
H: Hybrid Model
I: Interchange Fee Regulation
J: JSON
K: Know Your Customer
L: Legal Entity Identifier
M: Mobile Banking Application
N: Neobank
O: Open API
P: PSD2
Q: Quality Assurance
R: Regulatory Technical Standards
S. Strong Customer Authentication
T: Two-Factor Authentication
U: User Interface
V: Voluntary ASAP
W: Write Access Permission
X: XS2A
Y: YAML
Z: Zero-Touch Onboarding
Source: Subaio
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