In sports, esports, and the creator economy, money doesn’t just move, it sprints, collides, and occasionally stumbles through a regulatory maze that feels more like a bureaucrat’s fever dream than a modern system. Payment Labs was built to clear that chaos. Not by slapping patches on old rails, but by creating a purpose-built SaaS platform that automates pay-ins and pay-outs across 150+ currencies in 180+ countries, with tax and compliance stitched in from the start. Try getting your legacy bank to handle that before their third coffee.
Founded in 2019 by people who actually lived the pain, Payment Labs reflects the grit of its creators. Han Park, ex-President of Turtle Entertainment, spent years navigating the chaos of esports prize pools stretching across borders. Ronak Desai, a software engineer from Montclair State University, turned those war stories into code. Together they built not just a payments company, but a lab where complexity finally bows to precision.
That vision just landed $3.25M in oversubscribed seed funding. Aperture Venture Capital led, with Capital Eleven, ESPMX, and other strategic backers joining the table. The confidence isn’t theoretical, Microsoft, SEGA, X Games, The Snow League, Arnold Sports, and AVP are already running money through the system. More than $50M processed to date, with CFO-grade reporting that actually makes sense.
The receipts are loud. EVO sent 514 payments in 33 currencies across 48 countries without breaking stride. CueSports International wired 1,213 athletes without a single compliance flare-up. X Games athletes across 21 countries in 12 currencies got paid without triggering tax nightmares. That’s not a sales deck. That’s execution.
Now the seed round fuels the next phase: scaling engineering and sales, advancing real-time cross border flows, and expanding push-to-card stateside. Payment Labs is zeroing in on NIL for college athletes and creator-driven micropayments, markets begging for tools that don’t drown in paperwork. With a remote-first team, they can source the best talent worldwide without pretending geography is strategy.
Leadership just leveled up. Paul Brewer, with stops at The Sporting News, Rival, and ESL, joins as Executive VP of Sales & Sports Partnerships. Add strategic advisors Gregory Kim and Lisbeth Garassino Gutierrez, plus Aperture VC’s Garnet Heraman stepping in as board observer, and the roster looks like a masterclass in building both code and credibility.
Payment Labs isn’t just moving money, it’s becoming the invisible engine for industries that can’t afford to stall. If esports, sports, and creators are the show, Payment Labs is the sound system ensuring every beat lands, every note carries, and everyone walks offstage paid in full.
