– INDIA, Bangalore – Ezetap Mobile Solutions, the Bangalore-based pioneer in mobile payments for emerging markets, today announced that is has raised USD 8 million in funding, led by Helion Advisors, the multi-stage, India-focused venture fund with over $600 million under management. The Series B funding also counts Silicon Valley-based Social+Capital Partnership and Berggruen Holdings as investors. Ezetap, which has deployed over 12,000 devices across South East Asia and Africa, plans to use the funds to accelerate global growth across Asia and Africa, and expects to cross 100,000 devices in the next 12 months.
Ashish Gupta, Senior Managing Director of Helion Advisors will join Chamath Palihapitiya, former Facebook executive and founder of the Social+Capital Partnership, and Sanjay Swamy, Managing Partner of Angelprime, on the board of the company. Rahul Chandra, Managing Director of Helion Advisors, will also be part of the company’s team of Advisors.
“There is an enormous need to provide electronic payments across emerging markets,” said Abhijit Bose, CEO, Ezetap. “We have built a successful model based on world-class technology, scalable distribution through a combination of partnerships and our own direct sales force, and a cost structure that works in these countries. Our focus is to scale this model and become the leader for electronic payments across emerging markets.”
The Ezetap solution turns any merchant’s mobile device into an intelligent point of sale that is able to read any type of card and complete any type of financial transaction from a credit card sale to a real-time bill payment, to an ATM cash withdrawal or deposit. The Ezetap solution is comprised of a secure and lightweight card reader, a configurable mobile application, and a flexible platform that allows Ezetap to provide customized value-added services and integrate to a merchant’s existing systems. The Ezetap Card Reader can connect to a mobile device via Bluetooth, USB, or Audio.
Ezetap has been a global leader in the rapidly growing Mobile Point of Sale (MPOS) market. Last year, Ezetap released the world’s first fully certified Chip, PIN, and magnetic stripe card reader at a price point of $50 USD.
Ezetap was also one of the first MPOS companies to provided tailored solutions for enterprises in addition to small and medium businesses. Ezetap’s customers include leading companies in eCommerce, bill payment and collections, insurance, FMCG, restaurants and hospitality, retail, taxi services and organizations focused on financial inclusion.
“The product, high-quality team and market success of Ezetap is reflected in its ability to raise capital from top-notch VC funds such as Helion and Social+Capital”, said Sanjay Swamy, Managing Partner of AngelPrime, the seed-stage fund that helped launch Ezetap.
Speaking on the investment, Ashish Gupta said “Helion believes that Ezetap is best poised to lead mobile payments, given the massive change in paradigms of electronic payments, especially in emerging markets.
The investment also ties in with Helion’s game plan to invest in companies creating technologies to address global market opportunities.” This is Helion’s third investment in companies creating world-class enterprise technology products in less than 12 months.
Added Chandra, “What drew Helion to Ezetap is their approach in addressing the opportunity in mobile payments. Their solution goes beyond merely installing devices, to providing unique solutions to a diverse group of businesses that look at mobile devices as key to their growth. Their technology, device and architecture can best adapt to ever changing needs of the customer, and Helion is keen to be part of their global growth.
Ezetap was founded in 2011 by Abhijit Bose (CEO), Bhakta Keshavachar (CTO) and Sanjay Swamy, who serves as the company’s chairman. Earlier, in November 2012, the company raised raised $3.5 million in a Series A round of funding from Social+Capital Partnership and individuals including Peter Thiel (co-founder of PayPal and one of the Facebook’s early investors), David Sacks (founder of Yammer) and Nicolas Berggruen of Berggruen Holdings. Ezetap was incubated by early stage investment fund Angel Prime. Ezetap’s technology has been developed and built in India, and is compliant with global security guidelines.
Helion is a multi-stage, India-focused venture fund with over $600 million under management. The fund invests in businesses that are technology-powered or catering to the Indian consumer services space. Helion’s focus sectors of investment include consumer internet, mobile, technology products, outsourcing, Healthcare, education, retail services and financial services. The fund’s investors are well-respected global institutions including top tier university endowment funds, sovereign funds, foundations, pension funds, family offices and Fund of funds. The fund and its portfolio companies are advised by an experienced and industry renowned team of professionals based in India and includes Sanjeev Aggarwal, Ashish Gupta, Kanwaljit Singh, Rahul Chandra and R Natarajan.
About Ezetap
Ezetap is a Mobile-based Payments service provider for emerging markets based in Bangalore, India. The company was co-founded in 2011 by CEO Abhijit Bose, CTO Bhaktha Keshavachar, and mobile payments pioneer Sanjay Swamy who serves as the company’s Chairman. The Ezetap service is compliant, with global security guidelines including the Europay, Mastercard and Visa (EMV), Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), Payment Card Industry PIN Transaction Security (PCI-PTS) and Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS) standards.
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