PayNearMe Gets $16 Million Investment

PayNearMe, an alternative payments product from the company formerly known as Kwedit, has just raised $16 million in funding led by Khosla Ventures, with new investor August Capital and current investors True Ventures and Maveron also participating in the round. This brings the company’s total funding to $23.3 million. In conjunction with the funding announcement, Mark Britto, CEO of BOKU will join the company’s board of directors.

PayNearMe is capitalizing on the wave of services that are emerging for the unbanked, a group that includes 60 million individuals in the U.S. The “unbanked” refers to consumers who don’t have traditional bank accounts or cannot qualify for credit cards. PayNearMe allows people who don’t have or don’t want to use credit or debit cards to purchase products with cash at more than 6,000 7-Eleven stores in the continental U.S.

The funding round is further evidence of heightened interest in the payments business that also has AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile creating ISIS, a mobile contactless payment system that will be available to 200 million potential users at launch.

PayNearMe Rings Up $16M From Khosla And Others For Cash Payments Product