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Prairie Cloudware closes USD3.2m capital raise

Prairie Cloudware has completed a USD3.2 million capital raise. The company was founded to help financial institutions protect and extend their payments franchise while improving security, convenience and control for their customers.

“Three times as many consumers trust financial institutions over other providers to make payments safe,” said Kevin Kammer, CEO of Prairie Cloudware. “With the support of our investors, we are providing a solution that will allow financial institutions to reinforce their role as the primary provider of payment services, offering their customers safe, convenient ways to make digital payments on-line and in stores.”
 
Prairie Cloudware’s Digital Payments Guardian platform gives consumers the ability to keep the information associated with their various payment options – accounts and cards – safely stored at their financial institutions. The consumer can connect to the payment applications of their choice from laptops, smartphones, tablets or wearables and request their payment information when they are ready to make a purchase. The information is then routed in a tokenized format and completed through the existing payment rails.
 
Invest Nebraska Corporation is the newest firm to invest in Prairie Cloudware. The private, non-profit corporation is focused on high-growth companies in Nebraska and growing the state’s economy. Invest Nebraska’s Access to Capital Programs provide capital to startup companies in Nebraska through equity, debt and convertible debt instruments.
 
“Nebraska startups attracted as many deals in 2013 as there were in the previous five years combined, and local companies are increasingly capturing the attention and investments of investors in startup hubs like Silicon Valley and New York City,” says Mark Crawford, CEO and investment manager at Invest Nebraska. “Our commitment is to facilitate the growth and development of early stage Nebraska technology companies with the potential to deliver innovative solutions to the marketplace. Prairie Cloudware is that type of company. We believe they are offering a compelling value proposition for financial institutions looking for a competitive advantage in the digital payments space.”
 
Existing investors Croghan Investments, Nelnet, Tetrad Corporation and Treetop Ventures also participated in the round. Croghan Investments LLC is owned and operated by Ray Croghan, a serial investor in technology companies. Nelnet is a provider of innovative educational services in loan servicing, payment processing, education planning and asset management. The Tetrad Corporation is owned by a private family trust and invests in a variety of long-term business opportunities. Treetop Ventures has investments in a number of Omaha-based companies including Prairie Cloudware, D3 Banking, FTNI and USMPS.
 
“Our belief that the Silicon Prairie is rich with payments talent and investors who understand the potential of the space has been confirmed repeatedly since we founded our company,” Kammer says. “Our first round of capital, raised mainly from local investors approximately a year ago, allowed us to hire a team of payments veterans with experience in the latest innovations in digital payments, tokenisation, e-commerce and cloud-based offerings. This round of capital, also primarily from local sources, will allow us to move from beta testing to commercialisation of our Digital Payments Guardian service.”

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