Startup Braintree
Braintree, which promises to simplify payments for retailers online and mobile, has raised another round of capital. The second round, totaling $35 million, was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) with participation from other investors, including Accel Partners, RRE Ventures and Greycroft.
The payments company said the cash would go toward developing new payment capabilities and international expansion. In total, it has now raised $70 million in capital.
Braintree is not the only one after PayPal’s multibillion dollar business. Another start-up vying for a chunk of the business is San Francisco’s Stripe. The general claim by these newbies is that Stripe can provide a much more streamlined process for accepting payments for retailers and consumers — at least compared to the 14-year-old incumbent.
In the case of Braintree, it claims it is processing more than $5 billion in payments annually for more than 3,000 mobile and online merchants, including Uber, Fab, Airbnb and HotelTonight. It charges 2.9 percent plus 30 cents per transaction, and works in more than 30 countries and accepts 130-plus currencies. In a statement, NEA general partner Ravi Viswanathan said the investment reflects the firm’s confidence in the company’s technology: “We believe Braintree has the strengths to challenge all the incumbents in the payment space, including Paypal.”
Earlier this year, Braintree acquired mobile payments start-up Venmo for about $26 million to add another PayPal feature to its service: Digital wallet and person-to-person payment capabilities.