Gluon
Gluon is a payments app that lives inside the messaging apps people already use, including Telegram, WhatsApp, and iMessage.
- Category
- Fintech
- Fund
- NZVC II
- Website
- gluon.money
What Gluon does
Gluon lets users send, spend, and earn money instantly through chat without opening a new account, with social features such as group activities, referrals, and games, and keeps funds under user control through a self-custodial wallet. It also runs yield accounts under the name Gluon Grow and a Visa card that works with Apple Pay and Google Pay and needs no bank account.
The secret
Splitting a bill is a conversation, and every payment app makes you leave the conversation to finish it. Putting the payment inside the chat removes the app switch and the account signup at the same time, which is where most peer-to-peer payments quietly die.
Why NZVC invested in Gluon
NZVC invested in Gluon from NZVC Fund II. We file the company under Fintech on the portfolio wall.
We invested in Gluon because messaging is where people already spend their time, yet moving money still means switching to a separate app, and closing that gap is a large opportunity. Gluon embeds instant, self-custodial payments directly into chat with social mechanics that suit how people actually share money, which lowers the barrier to sending and spending. The team is building for a global, mobile-first audience at a moment when embedded finance and self-custody are both maturing.