Smartfin, a provider of mobile payment solutions in Russia under the brand 2can, has just completed a $5 million Series B round of financing with the participation of previous investors InVenture and Almaz Capital, two major Russian venture funds, as well as investment company ESN Group.
The latter, owned by Russian tycoon Gregory Berezkin, has stakes in a diversity of enterprises – from energy and oil to mass media, real estate and system integration companies in Russia.
Launched in 2012, 2can has pioneered Russia’s young but rapidly expanding market of mobile acquiring. The startup’s mobile terminals have processed more than 300 million rubles (approximately $9 million) to date, with more than 13,000 card readers distributed; 6,000 of these have been activated, as Tatiana Rylova of InVenture’s PR department told East-West Digital News.
“In March the service processed about 5,200 operations per week, which came to more than 15 million rubles,” added Rylova. “These indicators are growing continuously and steadily.”
Online stores and food delivery companies account for more than 50% of 2can’s operations, and the company expects significant growth in this field this year.
“Interest from these clients in our service increased after we developed additional options such as ERP integration, use of order number, bar code/QR-code scanning from the order form, integration with the mobile fiscal register and fiscal check print-out option,” a company representative told EWDN.
“We made the first investment in 2can a year and a half ago,” noted Sergey Azatyan, co-founder and managing partner of InVenture Partners. “Over that time the company has demonstrated incredible growth. The penetration of POS terminals accepting card payments in Russia is now five times lower compared to Europe and seven times lower than in the USA. The 2can project’s mission is to dramatically reduce this gap.”
The Series B round brings 2can’s total funding to $7.3 million, including an initial $300,000 from co-founders Yury Vladimirov and Nikolai Zhmurenko as well as $2 million raised in December 2012.
Among 2can’s competitors are Pay-Me and iPay; SellbyCell, which launched its service in late 2012 in partnership with Yandex.Dengi; and Life-Pay, which secured $2.6 million in 2012.
- RUSSIAN E-COMMERCE AND PAYMENTS REPORTS – EWDN has published an in-depth research on Russia’s e-commerce and e-payment industries in partnership with leading universities and consultancies. To receive free insights or to order the full version, please contact us at [email protected].
