Last week SwipePay Mobile Inc., the creators of a prepaid mobile phone application based in Alexandria, picked up $100,000 in funding for its big idea.
The company facilitates the reloading of funds on prepaid mobile phones through a Java/Brew application, directly from the user’s device.
The Center for Innovative Technology announced on Thursday that CIT GAP Funds is investing $100,000 in Swipe Pay.
“We are excited about receiving the GAP Fund stamp of approval and attendant funding, said Chris Wuhrer, SwipePays CEO. The investment will help us finalize product development, add key resources, and aggressively pursue business development plans.”
Based in Alexandria with offices in Seattle, SwipePay was founded in 2005 with the objective of solving the billing and payment needs of prepaid operators.
Wuhrer currently manages a team that has 30 collective years of marketing, technology and wireless experience, with backgrounds in both start-ups and Fortune 500 Companies including Sprint, Qwest, Intuit and several other ventures. Our management is complemented by employees and advisors with strong consumer marketing and business development experience both internationally and domestically, he said.
Wuhrer said their application provides ease and convenience to mobile subscribers, while maximizing profits and reducing purchase errors for prepaid mobile carriers. The service also allows for gift funding, where subscribers can reload usage time onto another prepaid account, as well as overdraft spending, where users have the opportunity to draw funds from a surplus account when they have exceeded their mobile spending limits.
CIT President and CEO Pete Jobse said that its GAP Fund Investment
Advisory Board was extremely impressed with the SwipePay management.
Moreover, we also liked their value proposition to help their clients
reduce costs and errors associated with prepaid reload while maximizing
data revenue, which is not currently taking place in the marketplace,” Jobse said.
CIT GAP Funds is a family of venture funds designed to bridge the gap between “family and friends” funding and early-stage equity investments for Virginia-based technology and life science companies. It invests mostly in seed-stage firms with a high potential for successful commercialization, rapid growth and downstream private equity financing.
“SwipePay is CIT GAP Funds’ 26th investment,” noted Tom
Weithman, CIT GAP Funds managing director. “Our investments have leveraged another $21 million of private equity investments in emerging Virginia companies, accelerating the pace of moving innovation into the
marketplace.”
