Clear2Pay, a provider of technology that powers advanced payment solutions used primarily by financial institutions, has raised a total of €6 million by its current investors AGF, IRIS Capital, Big Bang Ventures, GIMV, Trust Capital and management.
Clear2Pay delivers globally applicable solutions for e-payments, facilitating banks and financial organizations in their provision of payments services while reducing transaction processing costs. Clear2Pay’s payment solutions offer these organizations a branded way for their customers to pay online, including trade-supporting B2B environments, e-commerce applications and remittance services. The company also offers a ‘Open Payment Framework (OPF)’, which is essentially a library of component building blocks from which payments solutions can be derived.
The company has raised nearly €30 million in funding to date, so it seems like the company is simply battening down the hatches for the next years, considering the fact that the majority of its customer base of financial institutions is currently in a very deep crisis.
Here’s a prediction that is really a “no brainer.” Several of these companies that solve “real world” problems (e.g. Arravo) are going to transform certain industry sectors once we emerge from this economic black hole we are in.
Sure, they may not be as “cool” as the Web 2.0 companies but “cool” does not drive revenue, solving hard problems does.
Google is Google because it solved a hard problem in an elegant way AND happened to be at the right place at the right time (see Gladwell’s latest, “Outliers” which is once again an excellent read).
So who exactly do these guys compete with?
These guys know that application solutions like theirs are going to sell more in these times of slowing economies as financial institutions are competing among themselves while going through a testing phase separating boys from men.
http://www.nichea.info
Note: “these guys” know the international payment industry extremely well – just look where they come from; S1 and before that FICS Group …
I’ve met some of their technical people. Guru payment guys for sure. They were the ‘heavy hitters’ out of other payment oriented companies. I know lots of people in that space and they have some of the better ones. Expect success.
Thats cool… anything to cause competition for paypal and help lower their fees
-Jack