Bling Nation Secures $20 Million in Series B Funding

Mobile payments provider closes second round of funding, adds board member

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Bling Nation®, a mobile payments provider, announced today it has secured $20 million in Series B funding. The round was led by new investor Balderton Capital, with additional funds raised primarily from existing investors, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, who led the company’s Series A financing round. In connection with the transaction, Bling Nation has also added Roberto Bonanzinga, partner at Balderton Capital, to the company’s board of directors.

“Bling Nation’s technology will accelerate the adoption of mobile payments in the US”

Founded in 2007, Bling Nation enables consumers to pay merchants with the tap of a mobile phone instead of using a costly credit card or cash. In addition to consumer convenience, merchants reduce interchange fees, and banks increase income.

“Bling Nation’s technology will accelerate the adoption of mobile payments in the US,” said Roberto Bonanzinga, partner at Balderton Capital. "Bling Nation has the potential to revolutionize the payment industry, a sector that historically has been dominated by established players with little appetite for innovation. The scale of this market and the disruptive nature of Bling Nation’s business model combined with the company’s experienced management team are what attracted Balderton Capital to Bling Nation, and I am honored to join the company’s board.”

“Community banks and credit unions historically have struggled to gain a profit from their debit and credit card portfolios,” said Wences Casares, co-CEO of Bling Nation. “As a smaller financial institution, they wind up subsidizing larger financial institutions and are lucky to break even. The opportunity exists for community banks and credit unions to recapture lost profits by enabling local mobile payments communities, as 85-95 percent of their debit transactions happen locally.”

With Bling Nation, the tap to pay at the merchant point-of-sale is followed by an instant text message with the transaction information, an updated account balance and rewards balance. If the rewards balance meets preset thresholds, a customer can pay for their purchase using those rewards.

Bling Nation is currently active in two communities in Colorado. The first, La Junta, Colo.-based The State Bank, began Blinging June 22. Since then, The State Bank has seen more than 80 percent of the bank’s active debit card customers in the target market activate a BlingTag. It took almost a decade for the bank to see similar adoption of standard credit and debit card networks among its customers. The second is Woodland Park, Colo.-based Park State Bank & Trust, which began offering mobile payments to its customers Oct. 15.

About Balderton Capital

Balderton Capital is one of the largest venture capital firms in Europe, committed to finding and helping talented entrepreneurs build great companies. Based in London, it manages $1.9 billion in committed venture capital.

Since 2000, Balderton has invested in over 80 companies, principally in numerous European countries but also in the US and Asia. Balderton’s investments span a wide variety of sectors including communications, consumer services, enterprise software and services, e-commerce, mobile, semiconductors, media and financial services.

Balderton invests in innovative businesses and approaches investment using the principles of teamwork and an intense dedication to building companies of lasting value. The investment partners combine international and Silicon Valley operational experience with company-building expertise.

Notable investments include Bebo (sold to AOL for $850m), Betfair (the online betting exchange), 7digital (the online music download service sold to HMV), LOVEFiLM (the home entertainment subscription service) and MySQL (sold to Sun for $1 billion). For more information, visit: www.balderton.com.

About Bling Nation

Bling Nation brings mobile payments to consumers and merchant points of sale, offering lower costs, increased efficiency and improved security compared to credit cards, debit cards, checks and cash. The Bling Nation service also enables financial institutions and merchants to offer consumers robust rewards programs and real-time redemptions, promoting loyalty and convenience and supporting “shop local” initiatives.

For additional information, visit www.blingnation.com.