Japanese e-payment service Paidy expands Series A to $8.3m

The investment, which also includes SIG Asia and MS Capital, represents the second part of a $8.3 million Series A round. The first $3.3 million tranche - also led by Arbor - took place in July of last year and included CyberAgent Ventures and 500 Startups.

ExCo was set up in 2008 and currently offers two platforms: Paidy and AQUSH, a peer-to-peer lending platform. Paidy was launched last year and already claims to provide cardless checkout services to over 200,000 merchants.

Paidy gives users the option of purchasing products online using only their mobile phone number and email address. The platform also allows shoppers to pay at once or in installments.

"The majority of all e-commerce purchases in Japan are now conducted on a mobile device, and nearly half of Japanese smartphone users purchase products on their devices as their primary method of shopping," said Russell Cummer, CEO of ExCo. "This Series A expansion allows us to accelerate our product development and bolster our team."

As part of the deal, Tim Gong, managing director of SIG China, has been appointed to the start-up's board of directors.

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