Coindrum, an ingenious start-up that helps retailers and travellers benefit from unwanted coins at airports, has raised $2m in funding.
Ryanair co-founder Declan Ryan, tech investor Nicole Junkermann and Tom Kennedy of Hostelworld are among a group of investors who have invested $2m in an oversubscribed investment round by Coindrum, a company that installs machines at airports to enable travellers to convert their unwanted coins into duty-free retail vouchers.
In return for your unwanted money, Coindrum issues a voucher for the airport shops that is worth 110pc of the deposited coins.
Coindrum, a previous Start-up of the Week here at Siliconrepublic.com, was founded by Lukas Decker.
High-profile investors who have backed Decker in the latest round include Declan Ryan, Tom Kennedy of Hostelworld, Bobby Healy of CarTrawler and international investor and entrepreneur Nicole Junkermann, as well as Patrick Joy of Suretank.
Junkermann, whose previous investments Songza and RelateIQ were acquired by Google and Salesforce respectively, said: “The beauty of Coindrum is in its simplicity and its international scalability, it’s one of those wonderful opportunities where you immediately think ‘why hasn’t anyone done this before’?”
Coindrum helps retailers to coin it
Lukas Decker
Coindum’s retail partners are seeing a significant increase in the percentage of passengers that shop as a result of the service and expectations for the start-up are high.
Tom Kennedy, who co-founded Hostelworld prior to its $340m sale in 2009, puts it: “Coindrum has addressed a problem common to all international travellers. The market for the application is global and the potential returns significant.”
German-born Decker came to Ireland to study for a European master’s degree at UCD.
Coindrum addresses a globally unsolved pain, with more than €2.5bn in coins passing through departure gates within the Eurozone every year.
“The important quality about coins is not necessarily how much they are worth but that everybody has them and that they are perceived as an inconvenience,” Decker explained.
“Our service solves this whilst speeding up security and measurably driving spend at the tills as a by-product.
“The funding round was oversubscribed by 100pc in under four weeks and we are thrilled to partner with the right investors for Coindrum. The funds will allow further pursuit of our aggressive scaling strategy by growing our team as well as expanding the company’s global footprint.”
Airport image via Shutterstock
