Citcon Raises $30M to Simplify Mobile Wallet Payments

Citcon Secures $30 Million in Series C Funding

Citcon, a provider specializing in mobile wallet payment solutions, has successfully completed a $30 million Series C funding round. The investment was co-led by prominent venture capital firms, Norwest Venture Partners and Cota Capital.

Sierra Ventures and Sonae IM also participated in this financing round. This brings the total funding raised by the San Jose-based company, since its establishment in 2015, to approximately $50 million.

Citcon's Core Objective

Citcon aims to simplify payment acceptance for merchants. The company strives to enable businesses to accept mobile wallet and alternative currency payments as seamlessly as they currently process traditional credit card transactions, as stated by CEO and founder Chuck Huang.

Prior to founding Citcon, Huang dedicated four years as a lead systems architect at Visa. During his tenure, he spearheaded the architectural design and development of several key products, including a mobile payment gateway and a card-based rewards platform.

The Rise of Contactless Payments

Citcon was founded on the belief that mobile payments offer a more secure and convenient contactless shopping experience for both consumers and businesses. This vision gained significant traction even before the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of contactless payment methods.

The company’s performance demonstrates its success. Citcon’s annualized payment volume has reached approximately $1 billion as of late 2021, representing a growth rate exceeding 300% year-over-year. Revenue has mirrored this substantial increase, according to Huang.

Integration and Deployment

Citcon’s payment technology integrates with leading POS and e-commerce systems. These include platforms like Toshiba, Oracle, Cegid, Shopify, and SAP.

The solution is currently deployed across over 30,000 merchant locations and sites. Notable clients include L’Oréal, Tumi, Texas Instruments, Macy’s, and Panda Express.

Differentiating Factors

Huang highlights a key distinction between Citcon and popular platforms like Apple Pay and Google Pay.

“Our system is software-based, eliminating the need for a bank account or credit card linked to the wallets, unlike Apple Pay or Google Pay,” he explained. “We provide a unified API for both mobile and alternative payment methods (APMs).”

Traditionally, existing payment infrastructure wasn’t designed to accommodate mobile wallets, creating implementation challenges for merchants. Citcon’s single API integration allows merchants to accept over 100 mobile wallets globally.

Global Trends and Future Plans

The adoption of software-based wallets for payments has been rapidly increasing worldwide in recent years, according to Huang. Citcon is well-positioned to benefit from this growing trend.

“China has largely transitioned to a cashless society, with widespread use of these wallets, and this trend is gaining momentum globally,” Huang shared with TechCrunch. In the U.S., Citcon is collaborating with PayPal/Venmo to integrate its software wallet and has partnered with Klarna to offer a “buy now, pay later” option.

Citcon intends to utilize the new funding to expand its team, currently at 100 employees, and broaden its global reach. The company already maintains offices in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia, and is prioritizing expansion into Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region.

Investor Perspectives

Priti Youssef Choksi, a partner at Norwest Venture Partners, emphasized the strength of Citcon’s leadership team. She described CEO Chuck Huang and President & COO Wei Jang as “thought leaders” in the payments industry.

Choksi noted that both Huang and Jang, being native to China, bring a valuable international perspective to the evolution of mobile wallets within the U.S. market.

“Several key trends are converging around mobile payments, both domestically and internationally,” she stated. Mobile wallets have surpassed credit cards as the most prevalent payment method globally, with projections estimating 2.8 billion active wallets in 2020 to reach 4.8 billion by 2025.

“In the U.S., mobile wallets are rapidly gaining market share, driven by the emergence of new wallet options – including crypto, ‘buy now, pay later’ platforms, and neobank wallets – and the pandemic-induced shift towards contactless payments,” Choksi added.

She also commended the company’s success in navigating the complex regulatory landscape surrounding payments in various countries.

“This is particularly crucial given the increasing regulatory scrutiny of payment flows both in the U.S. and internationally,” Choksi said.

Ben Malka, a partner at Cota Capital, highlighted his firm’s ongoing monitoring of trends in alternative payment methods globally and within the U.S.

“We believe we are still in the early stages, but there is a significant market opportunity to enable diverse payment types,” he said. “We were impressed by Chuck and his team, their extensive experience in the payment industry, and their ability to build a global payments company.”