Speed, a payments infrastructure company developed by an India-based engineering team, has raised $8 million in a strategic investment round led by Tether, the issuer of USDT, together with venture fund ego death capital. The funding will accelerate the firm’s plan to scale Lightning and stablecoin payments for merchants, creators and platforms worldwide.
Lightning-based Bitcoin payments gain traction
Founded by entrepreneurs Niraj (Raj) Patel and Jay Patel following the sale of their commerce SaaS business Orderhive, Speed aims to address settlement speed and cost inefficiencies in traditional payment rails. The company says its Lightning-powered infrastructure enables instant, low-fee transactions and provides stablecoin rails for price certainty in commerce.
Speed reports it has processed over $2.5 billion in Bitcoin payment volume across merchant and peer-to-peer transactions. Its platform supports around 1.2 million users and has been growing at more than 100 percent year-on-year, according to company figures. The Speed Wallet is described as one of the fastest-growing Lightning wallets in operation.
On the enterprise side, Speed Merchant offers an API and dashboard designed for businesses and digital platforms to accept Bitcoin and USDT with instant settlement, reduced transaction costs and compliance features tailored for larger merchants. The company highlights a notable integration with US restaurant chain Steak ’n Shake, where Lightning payments were adopted across point-of-sale systems, kiosks and mobile ordering, requiring deep integration with Acrelec systems and high-availability infrastructure.
“Bitcoin and stablecoins have largely remained speculative assets,” said Niraj Patel, Speed’s chief executive. “We are focused on making them usable for commerce, creators and global payments. Lightning provides transaction speed, while stablecoins add price stability.”
A Tether spokesperson said the investment aligns with its strategy to expand stablecoin usage within Lightning-based payment infrastructure, adding that Speed is demonstrating how USDT can be deployed on Lightning at scale. Preston Pysh, general partner at ego death capital, added that Speed shows Bitcoin can be used for real commerce today.
The capital will be directed toward international expansion, enhancements to the enterprise product suite, scaling compliance operations and growing a developer and mini-app ecosystem around the Lightning Network. Speed’s roadmap focuses on onboarding merchants and platforms that need instant settlement and low-cost cross-border payments without the volatility traditionally associated with cryptocurrencies.
Industry observers view the deal as another sign of growing institutional interest in integrating stablecoins and Lightning infrastructure into mainstream payments. For markets where remittance costs and settlement delays remain a burden, Lightning-based solutions combined with stablecoins can offer a practical alternative.
Speed’s trajectory will be watched closely by payments partners and regulators as it expands internationally. The company’s success in scaling enterprise integrations, maintaining compliance and ensuring high availability will determine how readily merchants adopt Lightning-based Bitcoin payments as a routine settlement option.
More information about Speed and its offerings is available at https://www.tryspeed.com/.
Key Takeaways:
- India-built payments firm Speed secures $8m in a round led by Tether and ego death capital to expand Lightning and stablecoin rails.
- Speed claims more than $2.5bn processed and 1.2m users, with over 100% year-on-year growth.
- Speed’s enterprise product and merchant integrations, including Steak ’n Shake, demonstrate real-world Lightning-based Bitcoin payments at scale.
- The funding will accelerate international expansion, compliance tooling and a developer ecosystem for Lightning-based Bitcoin payments.
