Investors Pump Millions into M-Payment Companies Check and Paydiant (Sept. 10, 2013)
Sept. 10, 2013
The money keeps pouring in as two mobile payments players, Check and Paydiant, are the latest to report recent infusions of capital. Wellesley, Mass.-based Paydiant announced today that it has closed a $15 million round of funding from North Bridge Venture Partners, General Catalyst Partners and Stage 1 Ventures, among others.
The new investment will be used to accelerate product development, sales and marketing, according to the company, which provides a cloud-based, white-label mobile payment and offer-redemption platform for retailers, banks and payment processors. The platform developed by Paydiant, which recently signed a distribution deal with PULSE, works with existing smartphones, POS systems and payment terminals.
“The mobile wallet is about far more than mobile payments; it’s a marketing platform,” said Chris Gardner, Paydiant co-founder. “The market opportunity is huge, but most approaches have fundamental stumbling blocks, such as requiring costly new hardware or having security issues.”
Meanwhile, Check, formerly known as Pageonce, last week announced a $24 million Series C investment led by new investor Menlo Ventures. Existing investors Morgenthaler Ventures and Pitango Venture Capital also participated. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based mobile payments company is the creator of the Check mobile app, which can be used to pay any bill using any payment method, according to the company. “Check is in an excellent position to disrupt an industry with $20 billion in revenues,” said Menlo Ventures Managing Director Doug Carlisle, who will join Check’s board of directors.
