Founders: Abhijit Bose (CEO), Bhaktha Keshavachar
Launched: 2011
Funding: $35 million
Valuation: N/A
Disrupting: Electronic payments, cash
Rival: mSwipe
This Bangalore-based company courts businesses and financial institutions in India that are investing in smart applications and technology to connect with their customers. Ezetap's mobile payment platform aims to give these companies the means to complete any financial transaction with a customer, no matter what technology they want to use.
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Ezetap launched in 2011 with the goal of being the Square of the developing world — a mobile platform that can turn any smartphone into a point-of-purchase terminal. Like Square, Ezetap's device has a card and chip reader. According to the company, Indians opened more than 200 million new bank accounts in the past several years, although there is still a large percentage of citizens who are considered unbanked. Co-founder and Ezetap CEO Abhijit Bose says they may never have a traditional bank account, but with Ezetap they can be part of the financial landscape.
The company has attracted $35 million so far from venture capital firms, including American Express, Prime Venture Partners and Social Capital. They're clearly optimistic about the potential of bringing mobile payments to the developing world, especially since Ezetap has more than 70,000 customers in India. These range from large enterprise customers to tens of thousands of small retail businesses.
