Smartfin, a provider of mobile payment solutions in Russia, completed its $2 million Series A round of financing in mid-December. The startup, which operates under the brand ‘2can,’ has enjoyed the participation of Almaz Capital and InVenture, two major Russian venture funds, as well as of Cisco VP Bob Agee and other unnamed business angels.
Smartfin’s premoney valuation amounted to $3 million, the startup’s co-founder and COO Yury Vladimirov told East-West Digital News.
The startup received initial funding of $300,000 from Vladimirov and his partner Nikolai Zhmurenko.
2can has pioneered Russia’s nascent but rapidly expanding mobile POS payment solutions market. In September, with the support of the prominent Russian bank Promsvyazbank, it launched the first Visa-approved system in Russia.
“We have used an encrypted card reader since the very beginning, following the recommendations of Visa and MasterCard, which makes transactions and data transfer truly secure. This is not the case with some of our competitors,” Vladimirov claims.
Among 2can’s competitors are early movers Pay-Me and iPay; SellbyCell, which launched its service in November in partnership with Yandex.Dengi; and Life-Pay, which secured $2.6 million from a Russian financial company earlier this month.
