Play2Pay, a global mobile payments platform that gamifies payments, has completed an oversubscribed USD13 million Series A funding round led by Telesoft Partners with participation from Harbor Spring Capital and notable individual investors including: former AT&T vice chairman Ralph de la Vega, former Reuters CEO Tom Glocer, Madison Dearborn Partners co-founder and senior advisor Jim Perry, and Virtusa founder and former CEO, Kris Canekeratne. The new capital will fuel the company’s rapid global expansion by accelerating product development, hiring and partner engagement.
Through the Play2Pay platform, mobile phone users can reduce their bills by an average of 30 per cent by discovering and playing games, watching videos and completing daily challenges, special offers and surveys. The alternative payment platform brokers a value exchange between brands and consumers, converting attention and engagement into a currency, which can be redeemed for bill payment. Nearly 30 per cent of users earn enough each month to receive a free monthly service. Play2Pay’s offers are opt-in, easy to engage with and secure, GDPR- and CCPA-compliant. The company recently added new streaks and challenges features, allowing users to be rewarded for consecutive playing and to earn recognition with additional currency.
“Play2Pay is at the sweet spot of the intersection of mobile payments, monetization and gaming,” says Arjun Gupta, Chief Believer and Founder of Telesoft Partners. “The Play2Pay product creates a triple whammy winning experience: a win for consumers, a win for brands and a win for service providers. Play2Pay has mega potential to extend their model to multiple industries beyond mobile carriers. We are delighted to help Brian Boroff and his team scale to the next level.”
“Our revenue jumped by nearly 300 per cent in the 12 months from June 2020 to June 2021 as a result of consumers seeking savings, brands seeking an affordable way to reach customers, and service providers seeking new ways to drive revenue,” says Brian Boroff, Founder and CEO of Play2Pay. “Not only did our partners see 25 per cent Play2Pay users generating revenue daily on the platform, we offered our brand and service provider partners a new level of data and analytics that allowed them to customise offerings and strengthen customer relationships. We are growing thoughtfully and are excited about the potential of Play2Pay’s platform for financial services and e-commerce, as well as utility, cable and internet.”
Play2Pay is currently available to more than 100 million mobile subscribers across high smartphone penetration markets, including the United States, United Kingdom, Mexico, Brazil and Indonesia. The platform is free for service providers and merchants, with zero costs or fees from interchange, acquirers, chargebacks or gateways while achieving 100 per cent approval rates on the first attempt of every transaction, making Play2Pay the absolute lowest cost payment to process.
As usage of mobile devices surged during the pandemic, Play2Pay was well positioned to help carriers including AT&T, Cricket, and Indosat, to name a few, increase subscriber engagement and deliver value in the form of entertainment, brand discovery and monthly savings. Service providers realised up to 17 per cent revenue expansion as a result of subscriber engagement on the Play2Pay platform. Market research firm IDC estimates that in-app advertising will reach USD114 billion this year.
Play2Pay is headquartered in Miami, Florida and operates in the United States, United Kingdom, Mexico and Singapore. The company was founded by telecommunications veteran Brian Boroff in 2015. The leadership team’s prior experience spans work at AT&T, Adobe, Microsoft, Chewy, and Brightstar.
Capital Clarity acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Play2Pay and Cooley and K&L Gates both provided legal counsel during the fundraise process.
