ClairMail raises $13.8 million late round

Mobile banking and payments solution secures new funds for mushrooming market

ClairMail, developer of mobile banking and payments solutions for financial institutions, on Monday secured a $13.8 million late stage round of funding led by Investor Growth Capital (IGC), the wholly owned venture capital arm of Stockholm-based Investor AB with participation from existing investors JAFCO Ventures, Norwest Ventures, and Outlook Ventures.

Added to two similarly-sized rounds in 2005 and 2006, ClairMail has raised just over $34 million to date.

The startup promises financial institutions a mobile presence accessible by all customers, including those who haven’t opted for online banking. Comprehensive access and multi-layered security are two key components of the company’s mobile offering.

ClairMail probably didn’t have much trouble attracting new investors since it recently posted a 300% year-over-year increase in revenue for the second quarter in 2010. ClairMail serves eight of the top 12 North American banks, including PNC Bank, BB&T, and Bank of the West.

And if we’re to believe every mobile market forecasting report published on ClairMail’s Twitter feed--and there’s little reason to doubt them--this is just the beginning.

For example, by 2014, over one billion users will be charging over $1 trillion in mobile payments yearly, reports PR USA. Only 13.2 million people accessed their bank through their phones in 2010, comScore found, but that’s a 70% increase from just a year before.

Other research found the average cost of a transaction at a physical bank branch to be $1.14, more than double the $0.46 at ATMs, about five times the $0.23 on the Internet, and over a dozen times more expensive than the $0.09 that same transaction costs through mobile banking. These statistics alone should be enough to attract the vast majority of bankers to pursue mobile banking solutions over the next few years.

ClairMail already processes millions of transactions every month for customers of banks, credit unions, card service companies, and payments services. Users can take actions through either SMS or mobile Web applications.

ClairMail will use its latest funding to continue scaling its infrastructure and services to accommodate its growing roster of clients.   

image source: https://www.mopocket.com/graphics/Cell_Phone_and_Money.jpg