Pave raises $39m to build programmable bank

The funding was led by Accel, with participation from Tether Investments, Quona Capital, Wintermute, Helios Digital Ventures, Financial Technology Partners, Yolo Investments, Kazea Fund, and GC&H Investments.

Pave Bank was founded by CEO Salim Dhanani, who spent time at the World Bank before moving to Carta Worldwide and then co-founding fintech lender and payments business BigPay, alongside Simon Vans-Colina, who was at Citibank and Vocalink before moving to set up Starling Bank, and Dmitry Bocharov, a one-time member of the management team at Ferratum, a DAX-listed bank operating across Europe.

The new venture offers a single platform that unifies commercial banking services – deposit accounts, broad payment coverage, FX liquidity, payment card issuance and corporate treasury management – with institutional-grade digital asset management, an instant settlement network and an OTC trading desk.

The banks pitch is that, instead of managing multiple providers for fiat banking, custody, and liquidity, clients can operate across both systems under one regulatory framework, one compliance standard, and one interface.

Businesses using Pave Bank can manage both fiat and digital assets in real time, automate treasury operations, and reduce reliance on intermediaries. An exchange or market maker can manage both digital assets, fiat and fixed income treasury products in one place, and at the same time, deal with their counterparties using the Pave Network.

Corporates exploring using stablecoins in their operations can unify digital assets and fiat corporate treasuries with regulatory clarity and in a secure manner – improving speed, control, and cost efficiency.

With funding in place, Pave plans to expand its licensing coverage, deepen its programmable treasury and institutional financial products, and integrate with major financial and digital asset ecosystems.

Says Dhanani: “The global financial system is moving towards regulated on-chain finance, and institutions need a trusted bridge between the old and the new. We have built a mulit-asset bank that merges the stability and prudential oversight of traditional finance with the automation, speed, and intelligence of digital assets. This is about redefining how money moves safely, transparently, and automatically across the world’s financial systems.”