Phil Purcell of Continental Investors Leads Round as Other Prominent Investors Participate in Funding Round.
WePay, the payments company behind platform businesses including crowdfunding, has closed $15 million in Series C financing. WePay will use the funds to boost growth through further investments in its payments API product and international expansion. Revenue from WePay’s payments API has grown over 600% in the past year, and the company boasts over 300 platform partners and over 250,000 customers. In a recent article WePay stated they were processing $1.5 million per day in crowdfunding transactions. The company also announced its plans to discontinue its direct-to-consumer offering in order to focus exclusively on its payments API built specifically for platform businesses such as online marketplaces, crowdfunding sites and small business software. Many crowdfunding platforms leverage the service such as Fundly, Launcht, Mimoona and more.
The financing round was led by financial services and payments pioneer Phil Purcell of Continental Investors, co-founder of the Discover Card and former CEO of Morgan Stanley. Continental Investors has investments in several notable financial services companies, including the leading mobile payment and loyalty company, LevelUp. Paul Purcell will represent Continental on the WePay board.
Addition investors included:
- Max Levchin, founder & former CTO of PayPal
- Maynard Webb (Chairman of Yahoo!, board member of Salesforce, former COO of eBay, and former CEO of LiveOps), through the Webb Investment Network (WIN), his early-stage venture capital firm
- Angel investor Raymond Tonsing
Existing investors from previous rounds, including Highland Capital Partners, August Capital and Ignition Partners, all participated in this new funding round. WePay’s total financing now stands at $35 million.
“Platform businesses like online marketplaces, crowdfunding sites and small business software are the most exciting segment of ecommerce today,” said Paul Purcell of Continental. “WePay’s focus here, coupled with their ability to give these platforms a payment solution that offers both flexibility and protection from fraud and compliance risk, is a recipe for success.”
“We are thrilled to welcome Continental to the WePay family. The team’s depth of operating and investment experience with later stage companies, payments, financial services and the public markets will be invaluable to WePay as we grow,” said Bill Clerico, CEO of WePay.
Unlike general-purpose payment APIs and processors, WePay is uniquely focused on serving platform businesses such as online marketplaces, crowdfunding sites and small business software. WePay gives these platforms the flexibility they need to design new commerce experiences while still protecting them from the burdens of fraud and compliance. WePay’s proprietary VedaTM social risk engine underpins its API and is honed to understand the platform’s users.