Flint Secures $6 Million in Series B Funding to Expand Swipe-free Mobile Payment Apps

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. and NEW YORK, Oct. 25, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Flint Mobile, the leader in easy swipe-free payments and integrated marketing for mobile businesses, today announced it has secured $6 million in new capital. The company announced the new funding at Street Fight Summit today in New York City, the leading event for local commerce innovators.  Flint launched its popular iOS payment app under a year ago and just released its Android app on Google Play last week.

The new funds will enable Flint to expand its team, ramp up customer acquisition and accelerate innovation in the mobile payments market. The Series B round was led by Digicel and SVG Ventures. Previous investors Storm Ventures and True Ventures also contributed new capital as follow-on to their April 2012 investment.

"Our new funding partners position Flint well to drive the next wave of solutions designed to meet the needs of millions of service-centric, mobile small businesses," said Flint co-founder and CEO Greg Goldfarb. "While many others in the industry are replacing retail POS systems and cash registers with tablet apps, we're focused on empowering the 'non-countertop' businesses that operate outside of a store and have different requirements.  As a result of strong demand for our unique approach, we've seen transaction volume grow by more than 10 times in under a year." 

Unlike other mobile payment solutions that require add-on card readers or swipers, Flint's patented technology uses the phone's built-in camera to securely scan card numbers, with no additional hardware required. Other differentiators include:

• fast and easy activation with no waiting to get a card reader and no need for a merchant account;
• complete access to customer activity data including email addresses;
• some of the most attractive transaction fees in the industry for both scanned and keyed-entry transactions (1.95% per charge for debit cards and 2.95%for credit cards);
• built-in Facebook marketing; and
• an open network platform for customer engagement upgrades.

With mobility being central to Flint's mission, mobile operators are a strong fit as investment partners.  "As one of the fastest growing mobile operators in the world and with a particular focus on developing markets, Digicel prides itself on being a leader in the mobile payments space," explains Damian Blackburn, Digicel Group Business Development Director who has joined the Flint board of directors. "As such, we are always looking to drive and support innovation in this field. We believe that a pure digital app model to enable payments is an inevitable market shift in the same way that digital cameras and handheld GPS devices have become mobile apps."

For more information or to get started with Flint, visit www.Flint.com.

About Flint Mobile, Inc.
Flint offers the easy way for mobile small businesses to accept credit and debit card payments and generate repeat and referral business. Flint's free mobile app enables users to process payments using only their phone – without external card readers or swipers. The Flint platform uniquely integrates three core capabilities: 1) patented "swipe free" technology to securely scan the card number instead of using a card reader; 2) a payment service provider engine for fast and easy merchant activation; and 3) an open data framework that provides integrated marketing and commerce solutions, including an embedded Facebook marketing app. Founded in 2011 and based in Redwood City, California, Flint is backed by top-tier Silicon Valley firms and mobile operators. For more information, visit http://www.flint.com.

About Digicel
Digicel Group Limited is a leading global communications provider with operations in 31 markets in the Caribbean, Central America and Asia Pacific. After 12 years of operation, total investment to date stands at over US$4.5 billion worldwide. The company is renowned for delivering best value, best service and best network. Visit www.digicelgroup.com for more information.

SOURCE Flint Mobile, Inc.