Papaya Raises $50M to Improve Bill Payment

Consumer payments firm Papaya is looking to help people pay more of their bills — and pay them on time.

The company raised $50 million in a Series B funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners and will soon expand its team with additional partnerships, VentureBeat reported Wednesday (Dec. 15).

Sequoia Capital, Acrew Capital, 01 Advisors, Mucker Capital, Fika Ventures, F-Prime and Sound Ventures also participated in Papaya’s latest funding round, which brings Papaya’s total capital raised to more than $65 million.

As of October 2021, the average debt per U.S. adult was $58,604, and 77% of American households have at least some type of holdover debt, according to VentureBeat.

“Growing up in Brazil made me sensitive about my good fortune to receive a quality education, and I became passionate about giving back to the community and creating impactful businesses to help people,” Co-founder Patrick Kann told the news outlet via email.

“When I moved to the U.S., I couldn’t believe how hard it was to send bill payments compared to Brazil, where every bill comes with a barcode and you can pay through a single, centralized online system,” he said. “Finances is the number one cause of stress for U.S. families and paying bills — especially paper bills — is a significant component of that stress.”

Papaya mobile app users can pay a bill by taking a photo of it, choosing a payment method and sending it through the Papaya app. Papaya uses computer vision to recognize payments — whether a parking ticket, utility or phone bill, car payments or insurance or medical invoice — and automatically routes payments to the appropriate party.

Papaya will mail a check on the consumer’s behalf if it can’t find an online payment option. The Papaya app provides bill receipts and proofs of payment and most payments are paid within a day.