Visa joins Series C for Japan fintech player Paidy

"We have been following Paidy's progress and the enhanced shopping experience they provide at the time of purchase," Chris Clark, Visa’s regional president for Asia Pacific, said in a statement. "In Japan there is enormous opportunity to bring consumers more options to pay, whether all at once or in instalments, especially when shopping across multiple channels.”

Founded in 2008, Paidy provides secure, real-time credit accounts that allow consumers to shop online and settle a single monthly bill using only a mobile phone number and email address. It is said to increase merchant revenues by reducing incomplete transactions, improving conversion rates, boosting average order values, and facilitating easy repeat buying.

The service requires no pre-registration or credit card and is now in use by more than 1.5 million accounts. Paidy has said it plans to extend operations in the offline market and grow its customer base to about 11 million accounts by 2020.

Visa’s investment extends a $55 million Series C led by Itochu Corporation that also included participation from Goldman Sachs. The fresh capital will be used to develop new digital payment services and expand customer options in both online and in-store transactions.

Eight Roads Ventures led a $15 million Series B round for the company, then known as Exchange Corporation, in 2016 with participation from Itochu, SIG Asia, SBI Investment’s FinTech Business Innovation Fund, and Arbor Ventures. Arbor led an $8.3 million Series A funding round across two tranches in 2014 and 2015. Other investors include CyberAgent Ventures, 500 Startups, Cherubic Ventures, MS Capital, CSM Capital, and Recruit Incubation Partners.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Financials
• Technology
• Expansion
• Japan
• Financial Services