The internet has made everything more open, more accessible, and more immediate… But our financial system hasn’t kept pace - endless inefficiencies and closed systems remain. Lightspark exists to change that. We’re challenging the status quo, updating the current system, and empowering our partners to build better solutions. We make it easy for businesses to offer payments that are accessible, affordable, and better suited for today’s world.

Lightspark provides the tools businesses need to modernize payments, integrate with existing systems, and unlock new possibilities. Together, we're building the most advanced financial infrastructure—open, instant, and global—inspiring a future where anyone, anywhere can access the full potential of digital money.

Make
Money
Flow

Backed by belief in a better system. Lightspark is supported by a world-class group of investors who share our conviction: that the global financial system is overdue for reinvention.

Investors

Lightspark Acquires Striga: A Leap Forward for Open, Compliant Payments on Bitcoin

SoFi Chooses Lightspark to Power International Money Transfers

Tether Integrates Spark Into WDK, Ushering in a New Era of Lightning-Enabled, Non-Custodial Financial Infrastructure

Wallet of Satoshi x Spark - Self-Custody Lightning Is So Back

Revolut Partners with Lightspark for Lightning

Clemente Sardi

Clemente is Chief Operating Officer at Lightspark. Previously, he served as Director of Business Operations at Meta in the US, where he led cross-functional projects for the fintech group, and as General Manager of Novi in Europe. With a diverse background spanning law, general management, and entrepreneurship, Clemente brings hands-on experience building licensed companies from the ground up, combined with years of leading global payments initiatives in high-stakes environments.

Davi Strazza

Davi is Chief Business Officer at Lightspark. Before joining the company, he led Adyen’s North American business and previously oversaw its expansion across Latin America. Over the course of more than a decade in fintech, he has worked at the intersection of technology, commerce, and financial infrastructure to advance the future of global payments.

David Marcus

David is the CEO and co-founder of Lightspark. Most recently, he led all payments and crypto efforts on Meta/Facebook. In 2018, David started Diem (fka Libra).  He joined Meta in 2014 to lead Messenger, which he took from under 200M monthly users to over 1.5B. Previously, he was PayPal’s President. A lifelong entrepreneur, David launched two companies in Europe and then founded mobile payments company Zong in Silicon Valley, which was acquired by PayPal in 2011. 

Geoff Teehan

Geoff is Chief Design Officer with 30 years of experience as a designer, leader and entrepreneur. Previously he was the VP and Head of Design at Meta/Facebook, and also led design for Meta/Facebook's News Feed and Novi. He co-founded the trailblazing digital product design firm Teehan+Lax, which was acquired by Meta in 2015.

Jane Martin

Jane is Chief People Officer at Lightspark, responsible for building and scaling the team behind next-generation global payments infrastructure. She leads the full people lifecycle—hiring, employee experience, performance management, and total rewards. With 20+ years in talent and people leadership, she has partnered with founders and executives to grow teams across fast-moving startups in technology, fintech, healthcare, education, and philanthropy.

Jeremy Klein

Jeremy is VP of Engineering at Lightspark. Prior to joining the company not long after its inception, he held engineering leadership roles at multiple high-paced early startups. Jeremy spent the first seven years of his career at Google, where he led teams and contributed to the development of Chrome, ChromeOS, and Android. Throughout his career, he has focused on building and scaling engineering teams at the intersection of systems and consumer technology.

Kevin Hurley

Kevin is co-founder and Chief Technology Officer. He has extensive experience in the payments ecosystem, including roles at Meta/Facebook and worked on Diem (fka Libra), Novi, Messenger, and WhatsApp payments. Kevin has designed and built numerous aspects of blockchain infrastructure.

Leila Perkins

Leila is VP of Legal & Compliance at Lightspark. Before joining the company, she spent seven years at Stripe, where she led the North America Regulatory Legal team and served as General Counsel of Stripe Payments Company, Stripe's licensed US money transmitter. Prior to Stripe, she was an associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell, counseling financial institutions on financial regulatory matters. Throughout her career, she has worked at the forefront of payments regulation, helping innovative financial companies navigate complex legal and compliance landscapes at scale.

Mary Kauffman

Mary Kauffman is Chief Financial Officer for Lightspark. Previously, Mary was the head of technical accounting and new product & initiatives at OpenSea, a leading NFT Marketplace, and three years at Meta/Facebook as the head of technical accounting for its blockchain, digital asset, and traditional payments businesses.  She was also deeply involved in the financial implications of the Diem Association, focused on technical and operational accounting matters.  Before this, Mary was in Deloitte & Touche LLP’s Global Capital Markets and Assurance groups for over ten years.  Mary also serves on the AICPA’s Digital Asset Working Group’s Industry team.

Prashanth Balasubramanian

Prashanth left an MS in Computer Science from ETH Zürich to start Striga, which was backed by investors like YCombinator and UC Berkeley. He was the CEO & CTO until 2025, before being acquired by Lightspark in 2025. He built and scaled the core API platform that enables European businesses to embed compliant financial services spanning Bitcoin, Crypto and Fiat, which processed over €200M in less than 28 months of being the first licensed VASP under the new Estonian regime.

Tomer Barel

Tomer is co-founder and Operating Partner at Lightspark and President & COO at Melio. He has a diverse background in risk management, operations, data science, and executive leadership roles at Meta/Facebook(Novi) and PayPal - where he oversaw Fraud, Credit, Data Science, Data Platforms, Operations and Customer Service. 

Create global opportunity for everyone.

Make Money Flow

Team