PayKey, a fintech startup which aims to bridge the gap between banking and social, officially closed a $10 million Series B funding round, led by MizMaa, and joined by SBI Group, Digital Ventures – the fintech subsidiary of Siam Commercial Bank, SixThirty, Fintech71, The FinLab, and additional new and existing investors. MizMaa Ventures, a combination of the Hebrew words for east and west, is a relatively new VC fund which originated in China and with the plan to invest $100 million in Israeli local startups. Funding was reportedly secured from three wealthy Chinese families, with a chunk of the change from the Chen family, believed to be the 58th wealthiest family in the world.
“PayKey has a very attractive and unique market positioning – offering financial institutions a way to make their brands become a part of the most used mobile apps, while keeping the technical integration process very simple and fast,” stated Isaac Applbaum, Founder & General Partner of MizMaa. “We’re thrilled to add PayKey to our portfolio of innovative Israeli startups with a global reach, underscoring the investment focus of MizMaa and the background of its GPs and LPs.”
The funding will be used to accelerate PayKey’s global expansion and to continue developing new solutions. This latest round brings the total invested in the company to $16 million.ayKey has won numerous industry awards including Winner of the Citi Mobile Challenge EMEA, Winner of the Santander ‘Pitch Slam’, Winner of the Visa Contactless & Mobile Awards Payment Innovation, Winner of the BBVA Open Talent 2016, and being listed as one of Europe’s hottest 50 fintech firms.
[clickToTweet tweet=”.@getpaykey Secures $10M Series B, led by #mizmaa @fintechinsider_” quote=” “We’re thrilled to add PayKey to our portfolio of innovative Israeli startups with a global reach, underscoring the investment focus of MizMaa and the background of its GPs and LPs,” shared MizMaa Founder and General Partner Isaac Applbaum.”]
“It’s been a really successful year for us, as we’ve doubled the number of employees and signed seven commercial deals with banks around the world,” shared PayKey CEO and Co-Founder Daniel Peled. “Asia is a very innovative and strategic market for us, and so it’s very exciting to see such support and interest from the Asian market in this funding round. With top VC’s and strategic investors from the Asian market leading this round, it’s an exciting validation of our technology and success so far. We’re excited to hit the ground running as we expand towards Asia.”
[clickToTweet tweet=”.@getPayKey Scores Hefty Series B; #MizMaa Leads Round @fintechinsider_” quote=”“It’s been a really successful year for us, as we’ve doubled the number of employees and signed seven commercial deals with banks around the world,” shared PayKey CEO and Co-Founder Daniel Peled.”]
PayKey, a recent FinLab accelerator graduate, enables banks to increase brand engagement by utilizing smartphones’ keyboards into a new channel for financial services, information, and communication.
“As an alumni of FinLab, FinLab have been an excellent strategic partner for us and a key enabler in our success in Singapore. We’re very excited to now also call them an investor and have them on board with us as we move forward into our next stage of growth,” added Peled.
With its patent pending Mobile Banking Keyboard, PayKey helps banks to provide their customers with the ability to initiate and complete a range of financial services, including P2P payments, balance check, cardless cash withdrawal, chatbot engagement, and more, from within any mobile application without needing to open the bank’s app. Offering a cross-platform banking button on the smartphone’s keyboard boosts banks’ brand engagement while making the banking experience quick, contextual, and simple for users.PayKey offers innovative solutions that make banking contextual, frictionless, and instantaneous, taking the banks to their customers, rather than the other way around.
“Fintech is booming in Asia right now,” observed Paul Ark, Managing Director of Corporate Venture Capital at Digital Ventures, the fintech subsidiary of Siam Commercial Bank. “As a rapidly evolving space with huge market potential, we’ve been searching for companies with the right ingredients to invest in. With innovative technology, a great team, and early success with top tier financial institutions, we’re very excited to be adding PayKey to our portfolio and to be working together as they enter the next phase of growth.”
Founded in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 2014, PayKey touts some impressive early traction, counting Westpac in Australia, Davivienda in Columbia, UOB in Singapore, Garanti in Turkey, Sparebank in Norway, and Bank Leumi in Israel as customers. The company expects to more than double the number of customers in the next six months, with one of the world’s largest banks in the world due to go live with PayKey by the year’s end. The company has previously seen support from leading financial institutions, counting Mastercard, Santander InnoVentures, and CommerzVentures as existing investors.
“We were very impressed by PayKey’s traction in the market,” explained Yoshitaka Kitao, Representative Director, President and CEO of SBI Group. “The company has established itself as the leading solution provider for P2P payments and contextual banking solutions. We are excited to be an investor and look forward to supporting PayKey as they lead the way towards bringing greater innovation to the banking industry.”