Zipmark, a New York City-based mobile payment start-up launched in 2010, announced it has secured $2 million in Series Seed funding. The funding round was led by Village Ventures and Contour Venture Partners and supported by NYC Seed, High Peaks Venture Capital and the New York City Investment Fund, the company said.

According to the company's announcement, Zipmark offers an easy-to-use payment platform offering digital check services allowing consumers to pay bills online or from their mobile devices directly from their bank, thrift or credit union checking accounts. Along with faster payment clearance, Zipmark charges only one percent for each transaction and caps fees at $5 regardless of amount of the transaction.

"Our goal is to modernize the checkbook—to reduce the amount of time and money it takes to make a check payment, eliminate the possibility for bounced checks, and take all risk out of the equation for payer and payee alike," said Zipmark CEO and co-founder Jay Bhattacharya.

Improving the payment and collection process is a huge opportunity for companies that bill clients, such as real estate managers and utility companies, Bhattacharya said.

Zipmark said results from a pilot program in New York City have been overwhelmingly positive. Sunshine Suites, a New York City real estate company, has used Zipmark for four months and now has ten percent of its tenants using the service to pay rent. Due to the lower cost of processing payments and lower risk of bounced checks, Sunshine Suites has eliminated convenience fees for tenants.

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