Mobile payments startup Clip (PayClip Inc.), based in Redwood City, Calif., but focused on the Latin American market, announced a $5.2 million raise on Dec. 24.
As reported in PandoDaily, Clip is a Square imitator produced by former PayPal executives. The service charges 3.6% per swipe versus Square’s 2.75%, and operates primarily in Mexico, a market dominated by cash transactions.
Even payment cards are a rarity south of the border, but smartphone penetration is as high as the U.S., according to Pando. This is the opportunity Clip, and competitors such as Zoop (with a full number pad for chip and PIN transactions) and Sr. Pago, are, ummm, cashing in on.
PayClip’s total funding is $8.8 million, according to CrunchBase. The only investor listed for latest round is existing Clip investor Alta Ventures.
Payments startups received a large amount of funding in 2014, and AngelList counts over 1,500 of them in its database.
Hill Ferguson, chief product officer of PayPal, took to TechCrunch to talk digital payments and made a few predictions for 2015:
- Password-less Authentication Will Drive More Mobile Transactions
- Every Social Media Platform Will Start To Be Shoppable
- NFC Will Gain Steam
It’s hard to quibble with these in light of Apple Pay, but “every” might be a strong word for the social media prediction. Hill’s point is that payments are cool and that the time is now for friction in payments to drop away. Just 1% of commerce currently happens on mobile, Hill says, but 2015 will change that.
Tellingly, Hill doesn’t mention the coolest company in payments, Stripe, which powers startups like Instacart, which today announced a cool $220 million raise at a $2 billion valuation.
We’re talking payments and much more at Bank Innovation 2015, March 2-3 in Seattle. Request your invitation here.