Primer announced a $100 million Series C funding round to accelerate the development of AI-powered payment infrastructure and expand its footprint in the US market.
The round was led by Sofina, with participation from Peak XV Partners and existing investors including Balderton Capital, Accel, ICONIQ Capital, Tencent, and Speedinvest. The financing round was oversubscribed, reflecting investor confidence in Primer’s unified infrastructure platform for AI-enabled payments.
Founded in 2020 by former leaders from Braintree and PayPal, Primer built its platform around the idea that fragmented payment systems prevent organizations from fully leveraging AI capabilities. The company’s infrastructure layer connects processors, acquirers, fraud tools, and payment systems to create a centralized view of payment data.
Primer said its platform now captures more than 400 data points per transaction while managing more than 95% of customer payment volume on average. The company processes billions of transactions annually for customers including GetYourGuide, Dialpad, Printful, Rail Europe, Lime, and loveholidays.
The company plans to use the new funding to accelerate investment in AI capabilities for payments and finance teams, including expanding its proprietary AI agent, Primer Companion. Introduced in 2025, Primer Companion helps merchants answer complex payment-related questions and surfaces contextual operational insights.
Primer said future development efforts will focus on enabling the AI system to autonomously run experiments, optimize payment performance, and execute actions within merchant-defined parameters.
The company is also increasing its focus on the US market, which currently represents approximately one-fifth of revenue, with annual recurring revenue in the region doubling year-over-year. Primer expects US revenue to account for more than one-third of total company revenue by 2028 and plans to hire up to 50 employees in the region to support expansion efforts.
Gabriel Le Roux, co-founder and CEO of Primer, said the future of payments will increasingly rely on AI-driven decision-making systems.
KEY QUOTES:
“In the next few years, every payment decision in a large business will be initiated, optimized or audited by AI. That shift is already underway. The question is whether the data those systems run on is complete because when you deploy agents across fragmented data, they don’t just underperform, they make the wrong decision. That’s why the next era of payments can only be built on complete, contextual intelligence. And that’s what Primer delivers.”
“We don’t want merchants chasing problems or missing opportunities. With full context across every payment, Primer Companion can act on their behalf, knowing what’s happening, why, and what to do next.”
Gabriel Le Roux, Co-Founder And CEO, Primer
“Payments are reaching a structural turning point, with merchants consolidating onto unified infrastructure and AI moving to the heart of every transaction decision. Gabriel and the team have spent the past six years building the platform best suited to that future, earning the trust of some of the world’s most demanding merchants. We’re privileged to partner with them for the long term as they scale in the US and globally.”
Jean-François Burguet, Head Of Digital, Sofina
“Primer has built a unified infrastructure that manages nearly 100% of payment volume for its clients, giving global enterprises a complete view across multiple processors, acquirers, fraud tools and payment methods. As payments enter a new architectural era, that depth of context becomes critical for AI agents to make decisions. We are excited to partner with Primer as they expand globally.”
Aakash Kapoor, Principal, Peak XV Partners
