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Braintree Closes $35M Series B

2012-10-17
CHICAGO, IL, Payments platform for online and mobile commerce, announced today it has raised a $35 million Series B round of funding led by New Enterprise Associates.
Braintree, the fastest growing payments platform for online and mobile commerce, announced today it has raised a $35 million Series B round of funding led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) with participation from existing investors including Accel Partners.

With this round of funding the company has now raised a total of $70 million to help fund its mission to become the payment platform of choice for developers that are working on the next wave of e-commerce and m-commerce applications, such as Uber, Fab, Airbnb and HotelTonight. Braintree's technology is revolutionizing the way developers implement payment services and at the same time simplifying checkout for consumers - the last, but critical, step in completing e-commerce transactions.

"Braintree is kicking down both the technology and business road blocks that have made online and mobile payments challenging for developers and a hassle for consumers," said Ravi Viswanathan, General Partner of NEA. "We believe Braintree has the strengths to challenge all the incumbents in the payment space. This investment reflects our confidence in the technology, team and international capabilities Braintree has built."

Already, Braintree has introduced technology innovations that have greatly democratized the payment category by providing start-ups and developers with tools that were previously available only to companies with many tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. These capabilities include access to single click checkout, credit card storage without additional PCI compliance burden, international payments in over 130 currencies, recurring billing and mobile commerce. As a result, many of the best developer platforms in the world have chosen to build on Braintree, including Github, Heroku and 37signals. Many of the leading innovators in e-commerce and m-commerce, such as Airbnb, Uber, LivingSocial, Rovio/AngryBirds, HotelTonight, Fab.com, LevelUp and thousands of others, have also chosen Braintree's payment platform.

"Our e-commerce and m-commerce partners are changing the way consumers pay online for some of the most innovative services and products available," said Bill Ready, CEO of Braintree. "We are working to do for payments and e-commerce what Apple did for mobile: providing a developer-friendly platform that sparks a new wave of innovation and company-building. By making it simple to access the most sophisticated elements of the payment networks without having to be experts in payments, we will help countless businesses capture new market opportunities while consumers gain a world of exciting new mobile and online shopping experiences."

Overall, Braintree is processing more than $5 billion in payments annually for over 3,000 mobile and online merchants. Braintree works with merchants in more than 30 countries and is able to accept more than 130 different currencies. The company has already launched mobile libraries that enable the fastest, most secure transactions for the mobile channel, leading to more than $1 billion dollars in mobile volume annually. The recently introduced Braintree Instant product has accelerated Braintree's impact on payments overall, giving merchants immediate access to a full suite of payments tools, such as international payments and single click checkout, which used to be available to only the largest of merchants after months-long integrations to legacy payment providers. Braintree Instant also aids cash flow by typically providing funds within two days, versus a week or more for others in the industry, a key advantage for start-ups.

This year, Braintree also acquired mobile payments start-up Venmo. Through Venmo, Braintree seeks to offer the easiest way for consumers to pay for goods and services with their mobile devices. Venmo's digital wallet and person-to-person payment application make it simple for consumers to make payments to anyone with just a mobile phone number or email address. Venmo's mobile payment application has recently been named a top mobile app by Inc Magazine, CNNMoney and the Huffington Post.

The new funding will help Braintree bring to market this year additional new payment capabilities in online and mobile. The company's aggressive international expansion presents new opportunities to serve a global merchant base and give U.S.-based merchants unprecedented expansion opportunities overseas.

Braintree is also growing rapidly as a company and is hiring world-class engineers and other positions across its offices in New York, San Francisco, Menlo Park and Chicago. Other existing investors RRE Ventures and Greycroft also participated in this funding round.

About Braintree

Braintree is the fastest growing payment platform for online and mobile businesses, offering all the tools merchants need to accept payments and provide consumers a frictionless experience at checkout. Braintree provides merchants with a secure payment gateway, merchant account, recurring billing and credit card storage, as well as industry-leading customer service and an easy-to-integrate API. Braintree operates internationally, and allows merchants in 31 countries in North America and Europe to accept payments in over 130 currencies. Braintree's consumer arm, Venmo, offers a digital wallet and person-to-person payment application that extend Braintree's payment platform to consumers, making it easy for consumers to make payments on mobile devices.

Braintree's solutions have been proven to scale and support many of the most discerning, high-growth companies on the web, including Rovio/Angry Birds, LivingSocial, Airbnb, Fab.com, OpenTable, Uber, LevelUp and HotelTonight. Founded in 2007, Braintree is now processing more than $5 billion annually from over 3,000 merchants, $1 billion of which is on mobile. Braintree enables single-click, frictionless purchasing at checkout for more than 30 million consumers. Visit Braintree at www.braintreepayments.com and on Twitter @braintree.
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