Square-Competitor Startup payleven Raises $10M

Payleven, a mobile payments startup and direct competitor with Square, announced Thursday (Feb. 11) that it closed a $10 million Series D funding round, with the addition of Seventure Partners as an investor.

The new capital brings the total funding to $51 million for the London and Berlin-based firm.

“We are very excited about payleven’s growth. They have demonstrated to be on a clear path to profitability, having a positive bottom line in some markets already today,” Wolfgang Krause of Seventure Partners said in a statement announcing the new funding.

“Payleven shows that FinTech companies can reach scale, highly attractive unit economics and, ultimately, profitability,” he added.

The startup said the money from its latest funding round, which included participation from Holtzbrinck Ventures, ru-Net, B Cinque, New Enterprise Associates and MePay, will be used to continue expanding into new products and increase customer acquisition initiatives.

Sven Achter, general partner at Holtzbrinck Ventures and chairman of the payleven board, said payleven has stood out in the payments landscape through its ability to change the customer experience, offer great technology and target an underserved segment in the market.

“This has enabled them to achieve customer payback periods of less than six months, something unheard of in financial services,” Achter stated.

According to TechCrunch, the recent revelation that payleven is now the new POS provider for customers of Amsterdam-based payments company Adyen could help to drive the firms growth even more, especially since Adyen is valued at nearly $2.3 billion.

“Adyen has decided to no longer support their mPOS SME product and hence have offered their existing and potential new customers the opportunity to work with us,” a spokesperson from payleven told TechCrunch.