Plynk, which claims to be Europe’s first money messaging app, has today announced that it has raised €25 million in its Series A round. The funding round was led by private investment trust Swiss Privée Ltd.
The investment also marks one of the largest ever Series A fundraising in Irish history. Charles Dowd, CEO and Co-Founder of Plynk, said,
Today marks a significant milestone for Plynk. From the beginning, it has been our aim to remove the complexities and awkwardness of person-to-person payments. This funding brings us closer to fulfilling this goal; first across Europe and soon worldwide.
Plynk was co-founded in 2015 by Charles Dowd and Clive Foley in response to the need for an easy-to-use consumer application enabling the instant, effortless, and transparent transfer of money among friends.
Linked to the Facebook account, Plynk users can send money as a message to a single contact or in group chats instantly and with no fees. Once a Plynk account is created, users receive a dedicated IBAN and virtual Mastercard for online payments.
In addition, the application plans to integrate with both Apple Pay and Android Pay, enabling users to spend their money across multiple outlets. The company claims to already have over 6,000 users across Android and iOS in the Irish market. However, it is planning to expand further into Europe with eyes on Spain and Portugal next.
Charles Dowd said that over 2017 they will use the funding to expand into new markets as well as add GBP to their platform. Hiring will also be a priority for the company, adding more team members to continue development on the core product and to build more features unique to the social payments industry.
The Plynk app launched in January 2017, initially targeting the 18-25 market. In October 2016, Plynk had raised €725,000 in seed investment with backing from Bank of Ireland’s Start-Up and Emerging Sectors Equity Fund, managed by VC firm Delta Partners, Enterprise Ireland, the NDRC and a number of angel investors.
