A Berlin-based card payment solution for small businesses has secured Series A funding from some of Skype, Facebook and Xing’s earliest investors.
SumUp, which yesterday launched its mobile point-of-sale technology in the UK, Ireland, Germany and Austria, raised $20m (£12.6m) from b-to-v Partners, Shortcut Ventures, Tengelmann Ventures and Klaus Hommels.
The latest firm to enter the race to become the dominant mobile card payment solution, SumUp uses a free app and card reader to transform mobile devices into fast and secure payment platforms.
Following a successful four-month test period, SumUp has confirmed its market offering, and plans to take a 2.75% cut of every transaction made using the product.
Its solution is expected to be particularly popular with the UK’s estimated 1.5 million small businesses (more than 50% of which use smartphones), among which the number of credit and debit card transactions is growing by 38% year on year.
SumUp’s founder Daniel Klein said: “We founded SumUp to provide a secure solution that solves a real problem for small merchants, by harnessing the boom in smartphone technology.
“We have grown to a company of over 100 people, and will be using our subsequent investment by our experienced partners to take SumUp to further regions in the months ahead.”