David Marcus
Angel investor in Jolly’s Series A
About
David Marcus co-founded Lightspark in 2022 and is their chief executive. The company moves money globally over the Lightning Network, with Bitcoin as the settlement layer. He founded Zong and sold the company to PayPal, which made him president in April 2012. The next year he ran PayPal's $800 million acquisition of Braintree, which is how PayPal came to own Venmo. He joined Facebook in 2014 and led Messenger, then ran the company's crypto work as head of Novi and was one of the architects of Diem. He has been on Nubank's board since March 2023.
In the news
Still believe bitcoin will be worth $1 million or more over the long run: Lightspark's David Marcus (opens in a new tab)CNBC · Apr 29, 2026
Lightspark launches tool to fix Bitcoin's Lightning Network in key test for Facebook vet David Marcus (opens in a new tab)Fortune · Apr 11, 2023
Ex-Meta crypto chief David Marcus launches Bitcoin payments startup backed by a16z and Paradigm (opens in a new tab)TechCrunch · May 12, 2022
Notable experience
Lightspark (opens in a new tab)
Co-Founder
Chief Executive Officer
Apr 2022 – Present
Member Board of Directors
Mar 2023 – Present
Diem Association
Board Member
Oct 2019 – Dec 2021
Head of Novi
May 2018 – Dec 2021
Head of Messenger
Aug 2014 – May 2018
Tipping Point Community (opens in a new tab)
Member Board Of Directors
Feb 2017 – Jun 2019
Member Board Of Directors
Dec 2017 – Aug 2018
Education
University of Geneva (opens in a new tab)
Economics
1992 – 1994
