Denis O’Brien’s Digicel has joined the Irish Technology Leadership Group (ITLG)’s investment arm SVG Ventures in making a US$6m Series B investment in California mobile commerce player Flint Mobile.
Flint Mobile launched its popular iOS payment app less than a year ago and released its Android app on Google Play last week.
The US$6m round has been led by Digicel and SVG Ventures. Previous investors include Storm Ventures and True Ventures, who also contributed to the round.
“Our new funding partners position Flint well to drive the next wave of solutions designed to meet the needs of millions of service-centric, mobile small businesses,” said Flint co-founder and CEO Greg Goldfarb.
“While many others in the industry are replacing retail POS (point-of-sale) systems and cash registers with tablet apps, we’re focused on empowering the ‘non-countertop’ businesses that operate outside of a store and have different requirements.
“As a result of strong demand for our unique approach, we’ve seen transaction volume grow by more than 10 times in under a year,” Goldfarb said.
Mobile payments revolution about to begin
Unlike other mobile payment solutions that require add-on card readers or swipers, Flint Mobile’s patented technology uses the phone’s built-in camera to securely scan card numbers, with no additional hardware required.
“As one of the fastest-growing mobile operators in the world and with a particular focus on developing markets, Digicel prides itself on being a leader in the mobile payments space,” explained Damian Blackburn, Digicel Group Business Development director who has joined the Flint Mobile board of directors.
“As such, we are always looking to drive and support innovation in this field. We believe that a pure digital app model to enable payments is an inevitable market shift in the same way that digital cameras and handheld GPS devices have become mobile apps.”
