Flying under the radar amid a flurry of announcements from today’s Google I/O developer conference is the bigger news of how Google is stepping up its efforts to compete with online payment giants, such as PayPal. It plans to do so with a revamped checkout process for the web, mobile web, within mobile applications running on Android, and more.
It’s a proposed death to PayPal by a thousand… → Read More
What do digital payments companies make of Bitcoin? Here at TechCrunch Disrupt NY, a digital money panel featuring PayPal, Stripe and Gumroad gave its thoughts on the currency that has VCs emptying their bank accounts to invest afresh. → Read More
Building new infrastructure for digital payments may not sound sexy, but it’s an area that’s ripe for innovation. The legacy payments networks in existence today are bogged down with outdated technology, slowing progress. Des Moines-based Dwolla decided that the way to innovate in payments was to essentially blow up the outdated infrastructure entirely and start over by building out… → Read More
Because sometimes it’s the companies you don’t hear about constantly. FastSpring, founded in 2005 as an all-in-one e-commerce solution for companies selling desktop software and downloadable games before heading into the Software-as-a-Service space in 2011, has received a significant but undisclosed new equity investment from L.A.-based Pylon Capital. This is the first outside funding the… → Read More
GoCardless, the Y Combinator-backed payments startup based in the U.K., has raised a $3.3 million Series A round of funding, led by existing investors Accel Partners and Passion Capital. The company had previously raised $1,5 million in seed funding in early 2012, following its participation in the Y Combinator Summer 2011 class. Founded in 2010 by Oxford graduates Hiroki Takeuchi, Tom Blomfield… → Read More
Another day, another Bitcoin-related investment, and further affirmation that VCs are hungry to invest in the ecosystem surrounding the decentralized digital currency. Today, OpenCoin, better known as the developer of open source payment protocol, Ripple, announced that it has raised an undisclosed angel round from Andreessen Horowitz, FF Angel, Lightspeed Venture Parnters, Vast Ventures and … → Read More
Ribbon, the AngelPad-backed payments startup that introduces a simpler checkout experience when buying from merchants online or via social media, is today rolling out two big new features: support for YouTube payments and a new Twitter “in-stream” payment option that lets you buy without ever clicking away from Twitter.com. The company has also reduced its fees in order to be more competitive with… → Read More
If there is any downside to Stripe, the payments startup that makes it simple to accept payments online without having to first set up a merchant account, it’s that the service is aimed at developers and other technical users. Newly launched payment system MoonClerk wants to change that, by making it easy for non-programmers to quickly accept and mange both recurring and one-time payments on… → Read More
Mozilla is working with payment vendors and the W3C standards body to create a common API to make online payments, both on desktop and mobile, easier and more secure. To get this process going, Mozilla has implemented a new and experimental JavaScript API into its new Firefox OS for smartphones that will eventually allow web apps to accept payments. Mozilla argues that having a common API for… → Read More
Compared to the glut of young tech startups that have popped up in the financial services space over the last several years, Yodlee is a veteran. Founded in 1999, the company got its start by developing technology to make the back-end aggregation of banking data more efficient and secure, leading to the birth of companies like Mint.com, which went on to be acquired by Intuit. Now, with more than… → Read More
Plastiq, an online payments startup aimed at bringing credit card payments to industries which tend to shy away from supporting them, has raised a $6 million Series A. The round was jointly led by Atlas Venture and Flybridge Capital Partners, and included previous investors NextView Ventures and Greenoaks Capital, along with notable angel investor Harvey Golub, former Chairman and CEO of American… → Read More
Bitcoin is the “underground” digital money system that’s fueling growth and disruption in the online payment space. Coinbase is a “bitcoin wallet and platform” that lets merchants and consumers make transactions easily using bitcoin. → Read More
The recently launched, AngelPad-backed payments startup called Ribbon is today introducing new functionality that allows users to buy from merchants and other sellers directly in the Facebook News Feed. In addition, the company is confirming the close of its $1.6 million seed round, led by Tim Draper’s Draper Associates. Participating in the round were Siemer Ventures, Emil Michael (Klout… → Read More
Google recently changed its payout schedule for Android app developers, moving from a window which saw developers paid two days after the month ends, to a new window where the payout date is 15 days after the month’s end. The move will allow Google to hold onto payments longer, which benefits the company of course. But when Google informed developers of the change, it cited “new forms of payment”… → Read More
Ingenico, a global payment provider, is to acquire Brussels-based, pan-European online merchant payment services provider Ogone for €360 million. Ingenico said the acquisition furthers its strategy of becoming a “one-stop-shop” multi-channel payments provider, with Ogone’s online platform helping to build out its existing point-of-sale and mobile payment offerings. → Read More
Cash-based payments platform PayNearMe has raised additional financing, the company announced today, in a Series D round led by August Capital with participation from other existing investors including Khosla Ventures, Maveron, and True Ventures. The news comes alongside the launch of the company’s latest product, PayNearMe Express, a self-serve platform that lets any business sign up to accept… → Read More
Social gifting startup Wrapp is today announcing that it has grown its user base to 1 million within fourteen months – proof that people really do enjoy freebies, it seems. The company, which allows users to send both free and paid digital gifts and gift cards to friends, also had a busy holiday season, hitting 1 million gifts sent per week during the period. And it saw 100,000 gift redemptions… → Read More
Paymill, the cloud-based payment provider backed by the Samwer Brothers’ Rocket Internet startup incubator, is taking one more step to build out its Stripe-like service: it has signed a deal with PAY.ON, an international payment services aggregator that works with services like Amazon Payments to enable e-commerce services. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed in a statement issued by… → Read More
BlueKite, a Miami-based platform for cross-border bill payments, is today announcing $1.5 million in new funding, led by PeopleFund, which contributed $1.3 million of the total raise. The remaining amount was provided directly by BlueKite’s founders. → Read More
Bitcoin, a heavily underground peer-to-peer payment solution, is starting to peek its head above ground. Today, a payment solutions company called BitPay has announced $510K in investment, led by Shakil Khan, Barry Silbert, Jimmy Furland and Roger Ver. Put simply, BitPay feels like it is positioned to become the equivalent to PayPal for the virtual currency payment processor rival, Bitcoin. I… → Read More
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… → Read More
This weekend, we told you about the launch of Square Wallet gift cards, which allow you to send gift cards to friends to their favorite places to eat and visit in their neighborhoods. The power of this is that you don’t have to visit the physical store to buy an actual gift card, which is a time suck any way you slice it. → Read More
When you think about using Square, it’s very easy to drift off into thoughts of paying for coffee, food, or goods at a farmer’s market. In reality, the point-of-sale system that Square has created is a powerful thing for any business, small or large. Yesterday, TechCrunch spent some time at Safeway Ice Rink in Union Square, right in the heart of San Francisco. I’ve learned that… → Read More
A new AngelPad-backed payments startup called Ribbon is launching today with a simple concept: Make digital payments easy no matter the platform. To do so, the company has developed a one-page checkout system that lets anyone sell whether on Facebook, Twitter, on the web, email, and in the future, Pinterest, YouTube, and elsewhere. → Read More
As the digital wallet battle rages on here in the U.S., with Google Wallet, Amex’s Serve, MasterCard’s PayPass, Square, PayPal, carrier-backed Isis, and others all wrangling for a piece of the action, Visa’s digital wallet V.me is today exiting from beta, and announcing numbers related to its current traction. The company says that it has now signed up over 50 financial institutions to its… → Read More
Just in case you needed more proof that the leaked news revealing a forthcoming physical Google Wallet Card is indeed legit, you can just visit Google’s own Help section on its Google Wallet website to catch a reference to the yet-to-be announced addition. On the page entitled “Eligible Devices,” Google mentions that all Android devices with an operating system of Android 2.3.3 or higher are able… → Read More
Following a recent partnership with mFoundry which saw digital cash network Dwolla introducing more tools for banking partners, the startup is on the move again with the launch of a new service designed to encourage adoption among business customers. Called “MassPay,” Dwolla’s latest addition offers businesses a faster and simpler alternative to check-writing and wire transfers, by allowing them… → Read More
PayNearMe (formerly Kwedit), a cash-based payments network, is today announcing a partnership with property management software maker AppFolio. This deal will allow tenants to pay their rent using cash at nearby 7-Eleven or ACE Cash Express stores at any time of day or night. → Read More
Y Combinator-backed financial service ReadyForZero, which focuses on helping Americans pay down their $2.5 trillion in personal debt, is expanding its feature set today to include online payments. The new addition, a part of ReadyForZero Plus, will detect when you have new deposits in your bank account, and will then immediately advise you how to spend that money to more quickly pay off your… → Read More
Fuze Network, a payments technology company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, has raised $2.5 million in Series A financing, according to a new SEC filing. The round was led by Dana Stalder at Matrix Partners and Meyer Malka, founder of Bling Nation and co-founder of Lemon, Inc., now of Ribbit Capital.
The company had previously closed on $1.2 million in seed funding, from NYC’s Metamorphic… → Read More
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