PRAGUE — Tapaya secured €1 million in pre-seed funding to turn everyday commercial devices into secure payment terminals, the Prague-based startup said in a statement. The company builds software that runs on the 1 category of devices businesses already keep on their counters, cutting out the extra equipment entirely for local merchants.
Passion Capital and Depo Ventures led the 1 investment round, providing the startup with crucial capital. The cash arrives as merchants look for cheaper ways to accept card payments without buying dedicated hardware from traditional suppliers. Small shop owners usually rent or buy single-purpose card readers from traditional banks or large payments companies across Europe. Tapaya founders pitched investors on the idea that any phone or tablet can process a transaction safely if the underlying code handles the encryption correctly.
Engineering teams at Tapaya will take the fresh money to accelerate product development and hire staff at 1 primary office in Prague. Building payment infrastructure requires strict security clearances and deep integration work, the firm said. Developers must ensure transactions move safely from a merchant's screen to the acquiring bank without exposing sensitive card data. Prague offers a deep pool of technical talent, which helps keep engineering costs down while the company scales its initial operations.
Demand for flexible financial infrastructure has grown as more shoppers abandon cash for digital wallets and cards, according to Tapaya. Competitors range from massive publicly traded fintech firms to local software shops offering similar card-accepting applications. Tapaya must convince cautious business owners to trust their primary sales channel to 1 new app rather than a physical terminal they can hold in their hands, relying on ease of use to win accounts.
Executives at Tapaya have not disclosed when the enhanced payment application will roll out to customers, nor have they published a timeline for subsequent fundraising rounds involving backers like Passion Capital. The Prague-based firm will spend the coming months writing code that plugs directly into existing commercial setups without breaking, maintaining operations from its 1 central headquarters.
