ToneTag secures investment to scale edge AI payments

By Vriti Gothi

Bengaluru-based deep-tech firm ToneTag has received an investment from Qualcomm Ventures, the investment arm of Qualcomm Incorporated, to accelerate the development of edge AI-driven payment and proximity communication technologies.

The funding will support ToneTag’s efforts to build what it describes as one of the first India-designed Edge AI-powered payment modules for global deployment. The company’s technology uses sound-wave based proximity protocols to enable secure device-to-device communication and transactions across a range of connected devices.

The planned modules aim to combine on-device artificial intelligence with real-time contextual awareness, enabling everyday devices—including smart TVs, smartphones, wearables, and emerging Internet of Things (IoT) form factors—to support conversational interactions and embedded payment capabilities. The approach is designed to work with existing hardware such as speakers and microphones, allowing integration into legacy payment infrastructure without specialised components.

“The real differentiation in computing is happening at the edge,” said Kumar Abhishek, Founder and CEO of ToneTag. “With our proximity context protocol, we are laying the foundation for a new class of intelligent, payment-ready edge devices that can scale globally.”

Qualcomm Ventures said the investment aligns with its focus on enabling intelligence and decision-making directly on devices rather than relying on cloud-based processing. Running AI workloads locally can improve latency, operational resilience, privacy and accessibility—factors that are particularly critical in high-volume use cases such as payments, identity verification and real-time device interactions.

The investment reflects broader industry momentum towards edge computing in financial services, where faster processing, offline capability and data sovereignty are becoming strategic priorities. It also underscores India’s growing role as a hub for deep-tech innovation at the intersection of digital payments, embedded finance and device-native intelligence.

ToneTag’s payment protocol is currently deployed across millions of touchpoints and processes more than 25 million transactions daily, representing over $3 billion in monthly transaction value. The company holds multiple global patents and positions its sound-based communication technology as a low-cost alternative for scaling proximity payments across diverse device ecosystems.