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Bling Nation raises $20 Million in Series B funding
By siliconindia
Bangalore: With an aim of establishing a revolutionary and comprehensive payment system for physical goods, California-based startup Bling Nation has raised $20 million in Series B funding from Balderton Capital for a new cell phone payment system. With this financing round, the total funding of the company comes to about $33 million since its launch in 2007.
As reported by the TechCruch, the company partners with local banks in small communities in the U.S., where the prominent bank isn't Citibank or Bank of America. Banks will then offer the consumers, who use their services and 'Bank' branded chip that can be stuck onto any cell phone device. The chip will allow any user to make a payment directly out of their checking account similar to a debit payment. Bling Nation also partners with the entire local merchants in a given town, to give them special 'Bling Nation' credit card machines that will scan the chips.
The company claims that the payment device will calculate the number of times a payee has made a transaction and, as an added bonus, will automatically award the user with coupons, points or discounts, which the merchant determines. The device will read the chip and deduct the money for a purchase out of the payee's bank account. Bling Nation even allows merchants to implement a security feature in which, upon purchase, the customer will have to enter a PIN code for larger transactions.
Puneet Agarwal, who is the Chief Operating Officer of Bling Nation, is responsible for overseeing all company operations and product development for Bling Nation. Currently, Bling Nation is being used in two communities in Colorado, including La Junta and Woodland Park, which are both small towns outside of Colorado Springs. Wences Casares, CEO, Bling Nation said, "The device will be implemented soon in towns in the Northwest and Southeast U.S. Bling is also in talks with universities and military bases to implement its system."
