Paydiant, mobile payment platform, raises $12m
Stage 1 Ventures, North Bridge Venture Partners and General Catalyst Partners pooled funds together for the round; the startup raised $7.6 million in February 2011.
Paydiant says it plans to use the money for product development, sales and marketing efforts.
The platform's pitch goes like this: customers want to use their mobile devices to pay for things, and Paydiant's solution allows banks, retailers and payment processors to support Android and iOS devices without requiring additional proprietary hardware. Indeed, existing payment terminals and point-of-sale systems (and smartphones) can be used for mobile payments, digital coupons and e-receipts.
How? Three words: application programming interface.
For the business, a branded, contactless mobile wallet; for the coffers, new revenue streams; for the consumer, a tech upgrade and targeted offers.
The startup says its offering helps cut out the middleman, for both financial and security purposes. (Why white label? Because it allows payment processors to "create" their own branded pay networks.) The platform is already out in the field in parts of the U.S., but Paydiant wants to "aggressively" expand during the latter half of this year.
Many, many other companies are vying for a piece of this action, but I can still count the number of times I've paid with my mobile phone on one hand. We'll see what happens when the competition heats up.