Papaya, a mobile bill payment application that simplifies bill payments for consumers, announced that it has raised a $50 million Series B funding round. The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners with participation from Sequoia Capital, Acrew Capital, 01 Advisors, Mucker Capital, Fika Ventures, F-Prime, and Sound Ventures.
Papaya lets users take a photo of any bill – ranging from parking tickets, to utilities and phone bills, to medical invoices – and the company instantly takes care of the rest, able to reach every single business in the United States that issues bills. Papaya has built a one-of-a-kind, artificial intelligence-powered “bill understanding technology” which can understand an invoice in the very same way that humans do.
By reducing payment friction caused by paying bills through the mail, over the phone, or on complicated web portals, Papaya’s modern platform helps reduce everyday Americans’ bill pay stress by making it easy to pay any bill with their mobile device. It also helps businesses of all sizes in all industries as well as governments and municipalities get paid faster and more often.
“The Papaya team and I are driven by our deep desire to build a business that can scale and have a massive, positive impact for the greatest number of people. American families’ greatest source of stress and anxiety is finances. With a user-friendly app and single photo of a bill, Papaya’s technology eases that pain point, which motivates us all,” Patrick Kann, Co-founder and CEO of Papaya.
Papaya currently facilitates payments for hundreds of thousands of businesses and organizations in the U.S. Beyond the mobile app, Papaya integrates with partners’ billing processes through embedded widget technologies and paper statements.
“Patrick and Jason have built the technology and assembled an extraordinary, mission-driven team to reshape the bill payment process and empower businesses and consumers to operate with a new level of efficiency and sophistication,” said Charles Birnbaum, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. “We’re excited to support Papaya as they continue to build out their platform.”
Kann, with experience in banking and stints at the World Bank and IdeaLab, co-founded Papaya with computer vision scientist and Chief Technology Officer Jason Meltzer. Meltzer worked at iRobot, where he led development for the computer vision technology behind the Roomba. The new investment will be used to expand its team to keep pace with increasing demand, to forge additional partnerships, and to continue building its industry-changing technology.
About Papaya
Papaya is a mobile application that simplifies bill payments for consumers with its frictionless bill understanding technology. Consumers can pay any bill in seconds simply by taking a photo of it, choosing a payment method, and sending it through the Papaya app. The company addresses American families’ number one source of stress and anxiety and helps billers of all sizes and from all industries get paid faster and more often. Papaya is one of the highest-rated fintech applications on the App Store, with over 70k reviews, and backed by investors that include Sequoia Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, and First Round Capital.
Visit https://papayapay.com/ to learn more.
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