Tapp Commerce, a mobile payment app based in Finland has secured $9 million in Series A funding from Amma Private Equity to expand their operations in Southeast Asia. It is a platform that provides peer-2-peer commerce exchange network, which allows people without bank accounts or credit cards to locate mobile point of sales, in order to pay for goods and services via mobile.
The use of funds, says the company, will help it expand its reach into Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar. The proceeds will also be utilized in consumer acquisition efforts to strengthen its services and produce more monetization mechanisms. Founded in the year 2013, Tapp is aiming at bringing buyers and sellers together with a mobile marketplace app that makes purchasing online with cash, easy and reliable.
Warren Sample, CEO, Tapp Commerce, says:
“We are extremely proud of what we have been able to achieve with our initial seed funding and in demonstrating substantial proof points about our business and its unique model in the market. We are Here-For-Good, referring to the building of a long term sustainable business, but one which also ensures we leave our users better off today than we found them, yesterday. Innovative business models which empower and inceltivize the individuals’ success, ensures that as our customers and users win, so shall Tapp. It’s simple math.”
Sample further adds that Tapp Commerce is building the next generation financial plumbing for emerging markets and transitioning that cash economy online. Tapp’s innovation comes from taking real world economics & commerce models (e.g. how people operate in the real world), removing the friction in transacting & mapping those into a digital format. This is where technology, business, and social responsibility intertwines with financial inclusion to form up the “intersection economy.
Tapp Market, is its consumer application that lets users upload cash on the application to pay for goods and services or become an agent in exchange of digital credits. Currently available only on android, Tapp Commerce claims that over 30,000 vendors and 3 million buyers are using the platform across Southeast Asia.
Tapio Jarvenpaa, COO, Tapp Commerce says, “We are building a significant business based on sound fundamentals, like fees, systematic revenues and a number of related business models. Sustainable business that just works, without relying on so called traditional single business models like “advertising” alone, is an absolute game changer for setting the bar in our industry. Now the question shifts towards focus and scaling the business in order to spread the benefit to our end users.”