Bangalore based mobile point of sale (PoS) payments startup Ezetap has raised $8 million investment in Series B funding led by Helion Advisors with participation from existing investors Chamath Palihapitiya’s The Social+Capital Partnership and Berggruen Holdings. The company plans to use the investment raised for further growth in Asia and Africa and hopes to deploy 100,000 PoS devices in the next year. It has currently deployed 12,000 PoS devices across South East Asia and Africa. Incubated by early stage investment fund AngelPrime, Ezetap had earlier raised $3.5 million from The Social+Capital Partnership, Peter Thiel, Nicolas Berggruen & David Sacks and the company has raised a total $11.5 million investment until now. The company is one among several Square-like mobile PoS solution providers in India. The solution comprises a card reader, mobile app and a platform that allows Ezetap to provide customized value-added services and integrate with a merchant’s existing systems. Through this solution, merchants can convert their mobile phones into point of sale terminals by plugging in an Ezetap card reader. It says the card reader can connect to a mobile device via Bluetooth, USB, or Audio and supports feature phones, smartphones and tablets. Last July, Ezetap had launched a $50 magnetic stripe and chip card-based card reader with integrated pinpad and support for debit cards. It had also partnered with Citibank to launch a mobile payment solution for merchants targeting credit and debit card holders in India in January 2013 and partnered Kenya’s largest bank Equity Bank and MasterCard to expand operations to Kenya in March 2013. It counts companies like Myntra, BookMyShow, Olacabs, redBus, BigBasket…
