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Former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya and a number of other Silicon Valley investors have injected a first round of venture capital into Bangalore, India-based startup Ezetap Mobile Solutions. Like Square, Sail, PayPal Here and others, the company offers a dongle and accompanying app that can turn a mobile phone into a POS device.
What makes Ezetap different from U.S.-based providers is its customizability for emerging markets such as India and Africa, said an article by India Times. The company's integrated service includes a card-reader dongle, a mobile app and a platform that allows the addition of value-added services by third parties.
Ezetap was initially launched a year-and-a-half ago by partners Abhijit Bose, Bhaktha Kesavachar and Sanjay Swamy, with funding from Indian tech incubator AngelPrime.
Besides Palihapitiya, participants in the current $3.5 million round of funding include Peter Thiel of PayPal, private equity investor Nicolas Berggruen and Internet entrepreneur David Sacks. AngelPrime is also participating in this round of funding.
"Mobile devices as a point of sale will not just transform payments in emerging markets, but also have a tremendous social impact in the process," Palihapitiya said in the India Times article.
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