Zipmark, an innovative digital check payment platform, today announced the completion of a $1.5 million round of additional funding to accelerate the growth of its secure digital check platform. Zipmark will use the investment capital to continue to grow its market share within the SMB space as well as to increase the size of its development team and continue its mission to provide a modern, affordable alternative to ACH and other payment types.

Since coming out of beta in late 2012, Zipmark has changed the way small to midsize businesses invoice and collect payment by introducing the first secure digital check platform. Unlike the ACH network that is used as the major clearinghouse for bank deposits and payments, Zipmark built a proprietary hybrid payment platform and risk management platform that deposits guaranteed funds into a biller's operating account on the next business day. The ACH network can take as long as ten business days to deposit funds.

'Zipmark has experienced great adoption over the past few months, and this round of funding will enable us to continue and even increase that growth rate,' said Jay Bhattacharya, CEO and co-founder of Zipmark. 'Our team has doubled in size and we look forward to beating that growth in the remainder of 2013.'

'We backed Zipmark because they developed a real solution to the challenges small businesses face getting paid,' says Don Layden, investor and board member of Zipmark. 'Zipmark has made it a lot easier for property managers, utilities, and small businesses to get paid faster. The decision to invest more money into Zipmark was an easy one.'

Before co-founder Jay Bhattacharya launched Zipmark, he co-founded Mobile Money Ventures, a joint venture of Citigroup and SK Telecom. Mobile Money Ventures raised more than $20 million and was acquired in 2010 by Intuit.

Zipmark vs. Other Payment Platforms
Other online and mobile payment platforms either use credit cards or indirect holding accounts to move money in addition to having to log into their service every time you want to process a payment. Online payment features offered by banks and credit unions frequently take several days to pay a bill, because a paper check is often times sent via U.S. mail service or traditional ACH is used. These processes add complexity and 'wait' time. Zipmark replaces these hurdles by literally connecting the payer and payee's accounts so money can be received and available the next business day. Paying with a digital check using Zipmark is now as simple as clicking a button, but without all the delays associated with delivery and settlement.

About Zipmark
Zipmark's goal is to remove barriers between businesses and their money by bringing the checkbook into the 21st century: reducing the amount of time and money it takes to make a check payment, eliminating the possibility for bounced checks and taking all risk out of the equation for payer and payee alike. Zipmark was launched in 2010 by Jay Bhattacharya and Jake Howerton, and is based in New York City. Zipmark's investors are Village Ventures, Contour Venture Partners, NYC Seed, High Peaks Venture Capital and the New York City Investment Fund.