ZooZ raises $2M for branded mobile payment platform

The company gets support from XSeed Capital, lool ventures, and Rhodium

The payment process can make or break the checkout experience. Websites and mobile apps that don’t store my payment information get categorized in a part of my brain that’s reserved for planning long road trips, figuring out what to do about childcare for my kid, and planning my once-a-month trip to Costco. It’s not fun, but it has to be done. The same goes for websites and mobile apps that don’t allow me to pay with PayPal.

So when I come across payment platforms like ZooZ, that emphasize the consumer experience rather than the backend transaction, I feel like I can rest assured that some day, I won’t have to struggle so much to shop (sad violin). ZooZ announced Tuesday that it has raised $2 million in a Series A round led by XSeed Capital, with help from existing investors lool ventures and Rhodium. The new round brings ZooZ’s total raised to $3.5 million.

Founded in 2010, ZooZ (which is named after an ancient Greek currency that was supposedly derived from the name of the god Zeus) is a turnkey payment solution for e-commerce sites and mobile apps. The solution is branded and customized to fit the retailer’s needs, and customers can store their payment information for later use, which boosts the likelihood of repeat spending.

ZooZ’s customers include merchants, retailers, e-commerce companies, app developers, and more.

“We are currently processing payments for a wide variety of merchants – hotel bookings, flights, coupons, flower deliveries, food ordering, and many more,” said CEO Oren Levy.

The mobile payments market in 2012 reached $12.8 billion, but Forrester forecasts that the market will grow to $90 billion by 2017.

“ZooZ has already established an impressive track record with its market-leading mobile functionality in ways that are incredibly easy for customers to implement,” said XSeed Capital’s Robert Siegel, in a statement.  “Our investment in ZooZ highlights the confidence we have in Oren and his team and their vision to optimize and transform the entire checkout experience.”

While Levy could not give specific growth numbers, he did say that the company is growing exponentially and gaining traction globally.

The company plans to use the new funds from this round to add new products and features, increase traction with large scale retailers in Europe and USA, solidify new partnerships, and continue to expand globally.