Bangalore-based point of sale (PoS) startup Ezetap has raised Rs 150 crore in a round of funding from existing investors Social+Capital, Helion Advisors and Berggruen Holdings and new investor Horizons Ventures, reports NextBigWhat. As a part of the deal, Social+Capital founder Chamath Palihapitiya will become the chairman of the startup’s board.
Ezetap had previously secured an undisclosed amount of funding from American Express in return for a minority stake in March last year. This funding had come a month after the company had secured $8 million investment in Series B funding led by Helion Advisors with participation from existing investors Social+Capital and Berggruen Holdings. In 2012, the startup had raised $3.5 million investment from Social+Capital, Peter Thiel, Nicolas Berggruen & David Sacks.
AngelPrime-incubated Ezetap is currently one of several mobile PoS solution providers in India. Its solution comprises of a card reader, a mobile app and a platform that allows the company 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. The company says the card reader can connect to a mobile device via Bluetooth, USB, or Audio and supports feature phones, smartphones and tablets. Its customers include Myntra, BookMyShow, Olacabs, redBus, BigBasket, Temple Tree and Reliance Mutual Fund among others.
Clinknow acquisition: In June last year, Ezetap had acquired the Hyderabad-based loyalty platform Clinknow to launch an integrated payments and loyalty solution for merchants across India. Ezetap CEO Abhijit Bose had claimed that the integrated solution will be able to recognize a repeat customer during check-out and apply the best active offer.
Tie up with SBI: The State Bank of India had partnered with Ezetap in June last year, to deploy 500,000 PoS terminals across the country in the next five years. Ezetap claims that this is the largest mobile Point-of-Sale (mPOS) deployment in India to date. The financial details of the partnership were however not disclosed.
Subsequently in October last year, Ezetap and SBI partnered up to launch ‘Chota ATM’, a solution that could double as an ATM device as well as a PoS terminal that accepts payments from any debit and credit card. Targeted at neighborhood Kirana shops, the solution was offered to merchants for a non-refundable deposit of Rs 499 along with a monthly fee of Rs 150 and a commission of Rs 5 per cash-back transaction.
Citibank tie up: In January 2013, Ezetap partnered with Citibank to launch a mobile payment solution for merchants targeting credit and debit card holders in India. As part of the partnership, merchants were expected to receive real time information during the payment and collection process when customers transacted using Ezetap. Citibank had then claimed to have partnered with companies like Shoppers Stop, Bajaj Allianz, Flipkart, BookMyShow and Vodafone to deploy this solution for payment and collection.
Note that a few months later, Ezetap also partnered with Kenya’s largest bank Equity Bank and MasterCard to expand its operations to Kenya.
