Former Visa crypto lead launches open payments network

Atum, an open payments network founded by former Visa crypto product team lead Pete Cooling, has emerged from stealth with $13.5 million in funding.

Variant, PayPal Ventures, Abstract Ventures, Road Capital, Mirana Ventures, First Commit, Credibly Neutral, and strategic advisor Charlie Songhurst have all backed the startup.

Cooling says that payments are fragmented across currencies, chains, apps, and local rails that do not interoperate, and every handoff adds cost, delay, and complexity. Stablecoins offer fast, low-cost global rails, but are spread across many blockchains, which pushes that complexity onto users.

Atum acts as the coordination layer between all of this, connecting payment companies, developers, and enterprises through a single layer, without issuing a currency, operating a blockchain, favouring a rail, or taking custody of customer funds.

Any integrator, developer, or application can submit a payment request, while settlement providers compete to fulfil the payments across any supported chain and stablecoin, with native authorisation, reversible payments, and identity.

Atum itself says it is incentivised only by volume, connecting participants through a marketplace, making it credibly neutral.

The network serves businesses moving money: card issuers and acquirers, payment service providers, card networks, stablecoin orchestrators, wallets, fintechs, and enterprises, plus developers building on top.

Says Cooling: “In 2014 I saw that blockchains were payments networks, and everything since has pointed to the same conclusion. Onchain accounts are the future bank accounts, and new infrastructure is needed to make money move more seamlessly than it does today. Atum is that infrastructure.”