Payment Labs, a Van Nuys-based fintech company, announced that it closed a $3.25 million seed round of financing, almost doubling its $2 million goal.

Aperture Venture Capital, based in Philadelphia, led the funding round. Other participating investors were Capital Eleven, based in Boise ESPMX, based in Mexico.

Payment Labs will use funding to support the company’s overall growth, said Han Park, co-founder and chief executive at Payment Labs. “Essentially, we want to become the de facto or go-to payment solution provider in high growth industries that we already penetrated. That’s sports, video gaming and now the creator economy,” said Park.

The company also plan to hire more sales and marketing staff. In the summer, Payment Labs tapped Paul Brewer as its new executive vice president of sales and sports partnerships. Brewer formerly worked as a revenue leader for The Sporting News, Rival and ESL, formerly known as Electronic Sports League.

Gaming payments

Payment Labs developed a proprietary software as a service platform, which offers speed and tax compliance in global payouts. Park and his fellow co-founder Ronak Desai developed the platform as a vehicle for esports organizations, which often disburse payments to gamers who live in various locales around the world.

To deliver payments, esports teams must comply with tax regulations from a myriad of different government organizations, Park said. The platform currently manages global payments from more than 150 currencies.

Payment Labs has worked with sports organizations such as X Games and Association of Volleyball Professionals. It also worked with Microsoft Corp. and Japanese video-gaming company Sega. 

“The Payment Labs leadership team fits our ideal founder profile – which we call Contrarian Technocrat – in terms of their ability to rapidly go from vision to value,” said Garnet Heraman, general partner of Aperture VC. “Together we envision massive upside with evolving industry trends in global sports competitions, NIL, and the creator economy.”