Today, Jumio, an online and mobile payment solution, announced that it has closed a $6.5 million Series-A round of funding led by Eduardo Saverin, co-founder of Facebook and private investor.
Saverin, currently residing in Singapore, will become actively involved in Jumio's roll out into the Asian market and joins Jumio's board of directors. "I'm usually a critical person," says Eduardo Saverin, "but the last time I have seen such a disruptive idea was actually Facebook."
"We are excited to work with Eduardo," says Daniel Mattes, founder and CEO of Jumio. "It's amazing how many luminaries are fascinated by our project. The way online and mobile payments are handled today are practically outdated. There is a lot of space for innovation, and our mission is to make online and mobile payments as simple and secure as a handshake."
Jumio chose an innovative way of financing. Instead of raising a regular Series-A round with an institutional Venture Capital fund, the company decided to create a Special Purpose Acquisition Company ("SPAC"). A participation in Jumio was placed privately to Ultra High Net Worth Individuals ("Ultra HNWI") in form of a private placement. The use of SPAC is very rare amongst start-up companies, but has become popular lately from Facebook's deal with Goldman Sachs. "The advantages are obvious," says Daniel Mattes. "There is a lot of interest from high net worth individuals to participate in start-up success stories like Facebook, Twitter, Zynga or Groupon. We offered the market such an opportunity and it was received extremely well to the extent that we were over-subscribed."
Jumio will launch its product soon.
About Jumio:
Jumio is an online and mobile payment solution, currently in the final stages of development.
Jumio's advisory board consists of Eduardo Saverin, co-founder of Facebook, Zain Khan, former Google executive, Mark Britto, former Amazon executive, Maarten Linthorst, paved the way for the Internet together with NASA, Thomas Jungreithmeir, managing director of TJP and Bjorn Evers, former gaming industry CEO.
Jumio Inc. is headquartered in Mountain View, California and operates a development center in Austria, Europe close to two renowned universities. The company was founded 2010 by Daniel Mattes and employs around 35 people and is expanding rapidly.