Paymill, The Samwer Stripe Clone, Raises $13M From Serial Rocket Internet Backer Holtzbrinck Ventures And New Investor Sunstone

Paymill, the Rocket-Internet incubated online payments company that works like developer-friendly Stripe by offering users an API to quickly integrate card transactions, is today announcing that it has picked up €10 million ($13.2 million) in funding. Rocket regular Holtzbrinck Ventures participated, along with new investor Sunstone Capital, a backer of companies like Prezi and Trunk. Rocket has confirmed that this is the first time Sunstone has invested in a Rocket-backed company.

The Rocket Internet spokesperson also tells me that to date, Paymill, which is active in 34 countries, has now raised funding in the region of “double digit million euros” — although, as is par for the course with many of the Samwer’s businesses, we don’t have an exact figure yet. Other investors in Paymill are Rocket Internet and RI Digital (another Rocket vehicle).

The news comes as other Rocket businesses also continue to grow — among the most recent, fashion site Zalando has created a luxury goods spinoff, Emeza. I have also had a tip (along with others) that the Samwers may be looking to go public, although the company would not to comment on the report.

Paymill says it will be using the new funds to expand its footprint in Europe and elsewhere, as well as further develop its technology.

“The investments by Holtzbrinck Ventures and Sunstone Capital reinforce our leading innovative position in the European online payment market and will help us to continue our rapid growth,” said Mark Henkel, CEO of Paymill, in a statement. “Especially, we will use the funds to further improve our technical platform and to enhance our customer care. It’s our goal that everyone can accept online payments fast and easily.”

Like Stripe, which has been described as the “Twilio of payments” because integrating the payment service into an app or site is as easy as adding a line of code — making it possible for said app or site to then accept payments using major card networks at the touch of a button — Paymill has been building its service on the back of the rapid rise of native and web apps.

Its charges are similar to those of Stripe — in Paymill’s case, a per-transaction fee of 28 euro cents, plus a one-time fee of 2.95% of the transaction amount.

So far the two have not butted heads in any single market since Stripe is only in the U.S. and Canada, and Paymill is strongest in Europe. That follows the pattern that the Samwer Brothers usually take of building out their “clones” in markets where the originals have yet to move. And whether you are a fan of that strategy or notmore than once their clones have become the object of acquisitions for the originals as they look to expand with inorganic growth.

It’s fair to guess that Paymill will likely follow in the footsteps of other Rocket properties like Payleven (its riff on dongle-based mobile payments a la Square), Lazada (an Amazon take-off in Asia) and Dafiti (clothes and shoes, think Zappos here, in South America) and build up its business focusing on emerging markets.

In some, like Southeast Asia, Rocket is working hard to develop full-on “marketplaces” for other merchants to sit on its e-commerce platform — eg Lazada, which recently got a $26M investment of its own — so this would be an obvious place for Paymill to integrate and expand its business as well.

Full release below.

Press Release

Paymill receives €10m investment to fund further expansion

Munich 7th, January 2013 – Paymill, the innovative payment service provider, has received an investment of 10 million Euro by Holtzbrinck Ventures and Sunstone Capital. The company gives online stores and service providers on the internet the ability to integrate common payment methods into their platform, especially online card payments. Paymill is already active in 34 countries across Europe and other regions.

Mark Henkel, CEO of Paymill: “The investments by Holtzbrinck Ventures and Sunstone Capital reinforce our leading innovative position in the European online payment market and will help us to continue our rapid growth. Especially, we will use the funds to further improve our technical platform and to enhance our customer care. It’s our goal that everyone can accept online payments fast and easily.”

Paymill is well positioned for further rapid growth and international expansion: Paymill is currently receiving a double digit million euro in total financing. Investors include Rocket Internet, Holtzbrinck Ventures, RI Digital and Sunstone Capital.

Paymill gives online stores and service providers on the internet the ability to integrate common payment methods and especially card payments on their websites. The very simple API, the fast onboarding process and the transparent price, in combination with comprehensive customer support set Paymill apart from other popular payment providers. Integration of the service is substantially facilitated for merchants by simple copying and pasting of a few lines of code into the source code of their websites. The service includes providing of payment methods and secure payment processing in the background. Paymill is the first provider to have brought this simple and user-friendly technical solution to Europe.

About Paymill:

Paymill GmbH was founded in Munich, Germany, in June 2012 by Mark Henkel. The management team is complemented by Dr. Stefan Sambol, Jörg Sutara and Kilian Thalhammer. The company currently employs 25 staff, mostly with a technical background. Paymill is active in 34 countries across Europe and other regions. For more information go to www.paymill.com.