Top 50 Payments Angel Investors in United States in January 2026

Balaji S. Srinivasan is the Co-Founder and Board Member of Coin Center. He was the CTO of Coinbase and cofounder of Counsyl, Earn, Teleport, and Coin Center. He was previously CEO at Earn.com, which was recently sold to Coinbase. Prior to taking the CEO role at Earn.com, Dr. Srinivasan was a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Prior to joininga16z, he was the co-founder and CTO of Founders Fund-backed Counsyl, where he won the Wall Street Journal Innovation Award for Medicine and was named to the MIT TR35. Dr. Srinivasan holds a BS, MS, and PhD in Electrical Engineering and an MS in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University. He also teaches the occasional class at Stanford, including an online MOOC in 2013 which reached 250,000+ students worldwide.

Naval Ravikant is an entrepreneur and investor. He is the co-founder and chairman of AngelList. He previously served as the CEO of AngelList. He attended Dartmouth College.

Tim Draper is the Founding Partner of Draper Associates. He attended Harvard Business School.

Elad Gil is the Co-Founder of Color Genomics. He previously worked at Twitter as a Vice President. Elad Gil attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Max Levchin is the Founder and CEO of Affirm. He previously worked at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as an Advisory Board Member. Max Levchin attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Ben Davenport is The Venture Partner at Blockchain Capital.

Kain Warwick is the Co-Founder and CEO at blueshyft

Meltem Demirors is Chief Strategy Officer of CoinShares, an investment firm that manages $750M in assets, and is a trusted partner to investors and entrepreneurs navigating the digital asset ecosystem. Meltem oversees the firm’s managed strategies group and its New York office, and leads corporate development as a board director. Previously, shewas part of the founding team of Digital Currency Group. She teaches at MIT and Oxford, and serves on the WEF Blockchain Council. Meltem leads CoinShares' venture strategy and is an active angel investor, having invested in over 150 companies in the digital currency ecosystem since 2015.

William Hockey is the Co-CEO of Column. He previously worked at Bain & Company as an Associate. William Hockey attended Emory University.

Scott is an American entrepreneur and angel investor. He is best known as a co-founder of IronPort and an early advisor and board member at PayPal.Scott Banister started his career as a pioneer in the email business. He was Founder and VP of Technology at ListBot, the largest ASP for business email list hosting. ListBot was acquired byMicrosoft. After ListBot, Scott spent his time working with other start-ups as a board member and investor. These start-ups include eVoice, creator of the first email-enabled home voicemail service, which was acquired by AOL in 2001. He served as VP of Ideas at idealab!, where he contributed numerous innovations, including the unique bid-for-placement search engine model that powers Overture. In December 2000, with Scott Weiss, Banister co-founded IronPort, an email appliance provider that was acquired in 2007 by Cisco for US$830 million.Scott Banister is co-founder and Chairman of Other private equity investments include Zappos.com, LiveOps, Facebook, Hi5.com, Tagged.com, iLike, and Causes.com.Banister attended University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, from which he dropped out in 1996 to move to Silicon Valley. He currently lives in Half Moon Bay, California with his wife Cyan.

Scott Belsky is currently a Partner at A24, where he leads technology and innovation projects. He previously served as the Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President of Design & Emerging Products at Adobe. He attended Harvard Business School.

Peter Thiel Is the Managing Partner of The Founders Fund. He previously worked at Stanford Law School as a Visitor. Peter Thiel attended Stanford University.

Jonathan Weiner is the Founder of HumanX. He previously worked at FastPay as a Board Member. Jonathan Weiner attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Robert Leshner is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Superstate. He previously worked at Compound Labs as a Founder. Robert Leshner attended CFA Institute.

Sandeep Nailwal is the co-founder and COO of Polygon. Sandeep previously worked at Scopeweaver as the Co-Founder and CEO. He attended the Indian Institute of Management, Mumbai.

Dylan Field is the CEO and co-founder of Figma, a design and prototyping platform for teams that build products together. With the support of the Thiel Fellowship, Dylan dropped out of Brown University to start Figma with his TA, Evan Wallace. They built Figma on the web in the hopes of breaking down the barriers around the siloed design process.Dylan champions open, accessible design and believes such tools must evolve for a cloud-based, collaborative world.

Ryan Selkis is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Messari. He was the Managing Director CoinDesk before that. After discovering bitcoin, Ryan became obsessed with the technology’s social and economic potential. That obsession, along with finance and startup experience, helps him lead DCG's investing efforts.

Stani Kulechov is the founder and CEO of Aave and ETHLend. He is a seasoned entrepreneur with extensive experience developing technology in the crypto, blockchain, and fintech space. Stani is also a mentor to many founders and advisors of ICOs and blockchain projects and has spoken at numerous FinTech, Blockchain and cryptocurrency events,particularly on topics related to Ethereum Smart Contracts.

Daniel Curran is the Founder and CEO at CustEx.com.

Philippe Suchet joined Spider Capital as Venture Partner in 2015.

Raj leads operations, product, and finance. He has spent 10 years in product management and finance.He was a venture investor at General Catalyst, started the consumer medical device company Sano which attracted over $20m in investment, and led product management at Omada Health as it grew tenfold.

Cyan Banister is a partner at Founders Fund, where she invests across sectors and stages with a particular interest in augmented reality, fertility, heavily regulated industries and businesses that help people with basic skills find meaningful work. Prior to joining Founders Fund, Cyan was an active angel investor with a portfolio including Uber,Thumbtack, SpaceX, Postmates, EShares, Affirm and Niantic, creator of Pokémon GO. A self-taught engineer and entrepreneur, Cyan has held a number of technical leadership positions throughout her career. As an early employee at IronPort, which was acquired by Cisco, Cyan oversaw support infrastructure and performance for a global customer base. She has a passion for the arts and is a voracious film, documentary and media consumer.

Since starring in The Simple Life, Paris Hilton has built a global empire from the ground up as a businesswoman, influencer, activist, DJ, designer, investor, recording artist, philanthropist, host, actress, chef, model and author. In 2001, Variety declared Paris Hilton a “Billion Dollar Entrepreneur.” In 2006, she created Paris HiltonEntertainment (now known as 11:11 Media), a multi-billion-dollar company that started with 45 branded stores and 19 product lines, which have surpassed over $4 billion in revenue. She’s launched 27 fragrances globally and has won numerous accolades including the 2019 Best Mass Fragrance Award from WWD. Today, 11:11 Media is a global media platform with verticals covering TV (Slivington Manor Entertainment), audio (London Audio), digital (11:11 Digital), licensing, NFTs, impact and more. Always attuned to emerging trends and opportunities, Hilton continues to expand 11:11 Media and use her platform to inspire, empower and create lasting positive impact.Through Hilton’s production company, Slivington Manor Entertainment, and a multi-year partnership with Warner Bros., Hilton released Cooking with Paris (a new twist on a cooking show; released on Netflix in August 2021), released Paris in Love (a docu-series covering Hilton’s life leading up to and including her wedding; released on Peacock in November 2021) and is in development on various other TV projects. Hilton’s podcasting and audio company, London Audio, is underpinned by a multi-year partnership with iHeartMedia. Hilton hosts her own podcast, This is Paris, and recently launched a new podcast, Trapped in Treatment, that exposes the troubled teen industry. As an investor, Hilton is committed to supporting and investing in the next generation of entrepreneurs and building a strong investment portfolio (with a focus on female entrepreneurs and companies positively impacting the world) that includes companies such as Daily Harvest, R3SET, Viome, Origin Protocol, Genies, Good Catch, Zen Water, Yat, Podz, and many more. Hilton has also solidified herself as an NFT leader as was recently seen by her being named #7 on Fortunes’ 50 most influential people in NFTs, through being awarded “Winner of Best Charity NFT” at the 2020 NFT Awards and through her selling 25,000+ NFTs in her February 2022 “Paris: Past Lives, New Beginnings” NFT drop. In staying true to her goal of fostering empowerment and in collaboration with Sevens Foundation, Paris curated and launched “Empowered By Paris: Empowered Women Empower Women Exhibition”, which is an NFT exhibit dedicated to showcasing and equipping female artists with a platform to succeed. Paris also recently launched “Paris World” in Roblox, where more people showed up for Paris’ NYE ball drop in Paris World than Times Square!Through her powerful activism work, Hilton has spearheaded impactful policy change across the United States and abroad. In the critically acclaimed This is Paris YouTube Originals documentary (which has garnered over 46 million views to date), Hilton revealed the abuses she suffered as a teenager within the Troubled Teen Industry and has since dedicated her platform to reforming the industry. In one year, her vocal advocacy influenced the passage of U.S. state laws in California, Massachusetts, Missouri, Oregon, Utah, as well as a law in Northern Ireland. In partnership with Breaking Code Silence, a nonprofit whose goal is to eradicate the abuse of institutionalized children, Hilton was accepted by Rise Justice Labs, the world’s first civil rights accelerator, to develop the federal Accountability for Congregate Care Act that will positively impact 120,000 youth annually. Her participation in the #BreakingCodeSilence movement has significantly increased awareness of the Industry with a media reach valued at $77M in ad equivalency and the aggregate readership of articles referencing Paris & the cause at 41B. Hilton also recently received a grant from the Hilton Foundation to develop a novel mental health support model for impacted survivors. Philanthropy is an important part of Hilton’s life and will continue to be a principal pillar of her platform.This is just the start for Paris Hilton and 11:11 Media. Paris and her team will continue to elevate with purpose and contribute to society by creating thought provoking, impactful, premium entertainment experiences and products. Whether it is Paris World, inventive new NFT drop formats, a beauty product line, a cookware/kitchen product line, or new TV shows and podcasts, 11:11 Media is poised to impress and will be a company to watch.

Gokul Rajaram is a founding partner at Marathon Management Partners and Board of Director of Niural.

Marc Benioff is based out of San Francisco, California, and is the Chair, Chief Executive Officer, and Co-Founder of Salesforce. Marc previously worked at Oracle as a Senior Vice President. Marc Benioff attended the University of Southern California. Marc Benioff has been awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.

Jason Yanowitz is the Co-founder of Blockworks, a media and information platform that delivers news and insights about crypto to millions of investors.

Edward Lando is the founder of Pareto Holdings. He previously worked at Horizons School of Technology as a co-founder. Edward Lando attended the Wharton School.

Paul Taylor is an angel investor and advisor to 100+ companies in the web3 industry. He was the most active angel investor based in the US for crypto in 2024 (Crunchbase). He previously worked at Fancy Studios as a Core Contributor. Prior to that, he worked at BlackRock on the Private Equity Partners team. Paul attended Emory University where hereceived his BBA degree. He is also a 4-time national chess champion, international best-selling author, and mined Bitcoin back in 2011.

Vinny Lingham is the Co-Founder and CEO of Rumi.ai(Waitroom). He previously worked at YPO as a Member. Vinny Lingham attended Harvard Business School Executive Education.

Paul Veradittakit is a Partner at Pantera Capital.

Michael Vaughan is the Co-Founder and General Partner of Vera Equity. He previously worked at Stem Disintermedia Inc. as a Board Member. Michael Vaughan attended The Wharton School.

Nitesh Banta is the Co-Founder & CEO at B12.

Angel Investor

Lachy Groom is the Co-Founder of Physical Intelligence. He previously worked at Stripe as the Head of Stripe Issuing.

Roger is currently involved in numerous Bitcoin related projects. He is an early investor in bitcoin-related startups. He has been a prominent supporter of bitcoin adoption and saw bitcoin as a means to promote economic freedom. He now promotes Bitcoin Cash, a hard fork of the cryptocurrency created with the intent to fix issues such as high feesand long transaction confirmation times.

Lee is a Managing Partner at Quiet Capital. He is an entrepreneur and early-stage investor.Previously, he lead Facebook's emerging initiatives in commerce, including Gifts and the Facebook Card.Lee founded Karma, a breakthrough mobile commerce platform that allowed smartphone users to instantly send real gifts to others without the burdenof physical mailing addresses. Karma was acquired by Facebook in early 2012. Prior to Karma, Lee founded Tapjoy and piloted the company to its position as a leading mobile advertising platform which today touches more than 1 billion devices. He began Tapjoy by co-creating multiple top mobile games for iOS/Android and subsequently unraveling the potential of mobile advertising and app distribution at scale.Earlier, Lee worked for venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins and helped launch the iFund, a $100M investment vehicle focused on smartphone application platforms. Lee originally began his career working in product development at Microsoft, where he co-created the Windows Home Server division and shipped the first version of that product to market.Lee holds an MBA from Stanford's Graduate School of Business and a BA in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan. He grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan, and today lives and works in the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area.Lee has been a featured speaker at universities, conferences, and panels worldwide and has received numerous awards for his work including 30 under 30 Best Young Tech Entrepreneur by Bloomberg Businessweek 2012, 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company in 2012, and The Silicon Valley 100 by Business Insider 2013.

Joshua Browder is the Founder and CEO of DoNotPay.

Sabrina Hahn is a prolific venture investor across sectors.

Sahin Boydas is a serial entrepreneur who co-founded startups in Silicon Valley.Sahin has built and managed remote teams for over a decade. He founded RemoteTeam.com, which was a payments and HR platform for remote teams, and was acquired by Gusto.He co-founded the movie marketing platform MovieLaLa, and was downloaded by millions with networkpartnerships. Movielala sold it to Gfycat. He co-founded a sticker platform called MojiLaLa and a consumer-facing Augmented Reality app, Leo AR.

Atlas Benjelloun has been working as a Group Chairman, Atlas Finance at Atlas Holding for 13 years. Atlas Holding is part of the Holding Companies & Conglomerates industry, and located in San Francisco, United States.Atlas Benjelloun invest and support curious, mission-minded people who are committed to solving the Internet’s toughestchallenges.

Santiago Roel Santos was a Partner at ParaFi Capital.

Diogo Mónica is the Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Anchorage Digital, the premier digital asset platform for institutions and a General Partner at Haun Ventures. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the Technical University of Lisbon, and has worked in software security for over 15 years. As an early employee at Square, he helped buildsecurity architecture that now moves $100B annually. At Docker, he helped secure core infrastructure used in global banks, governments, and the three largest cloud providers.

Fred Ehrsam is the Co-Founder of Paradigm.

Alex Pack is a Founding Partner on the deal team at AngelList, the largest platform for early-stage tech investing in the world. Previously he was an investor with Arbor Ventures, an early-stage VC firm in Hong Kong, where he focused on opportunities in cross-border FinTech, EdTech, and blockchain technology.

Sam Altman is the CEO and co-founder of OpenAI. He is a Partner of Apollo Projects. Altman was the president of Y Combinator. Sam attended Stanford University.

Pascal Levy-Garboua is an angel investor, founder, and operator. He is currently VP. Business Development at Checkr, where he joined as their first executive and Employee #9.Previously, he was CEO/Cofounder at SixDoors, Cofounder at VirtuOz (acquired by Nuance Communications) and VP Product at IQ Engines (Acquired by Yahoo). He started hiscareer at eBay in France.Pascal invested in 85+ Companies including Checkr, Wag, Womply, Origin, RealtyShares, and Caviar (Acquired by Square).

Kevin Moore has 10 years experience as an angel/opportunity investor and operator. Prior to that, he has over 15 years of progressive technology i-banking, corp dev, and CFO experience at startups and $Bn corporates.

Linda Xie is co-founder and Managing Director of Scalar Capital. Previously she was a product manager at Coinbase which she joined in June 2014. At Coinbase, Linda has worked with regulators and law enforcement on compliance for digital assets. Prior to Coinbase, she was a portfolio risk analyst at AIG. Linda holds a B.A. in Economics from theUniversity of California, San Diego.

Mark Cuban is the founder of Fireside, Chairman and Founding Partner of AXS TV, and the Owner of Dallas Mavericks. He previously worked at Broadcast.com as a Co-Founder. Mark Cuban attended the Indiana University Bloomington.

Seth Weinstein is a Managing Member at ZAX LLC.