US mobile payments provider Bling Nation secures $8m in Series A funding

Bling Nation’s propriety technology enables customers to use their mobile phones for payment transactions as an alternative to credit or debit card, claiming cheaper transactions for consumers, merchants and banks. The company received its first customer, The State Bank in June 2009.

“Bling Nation is enabling innovative mobile payments solutions that are much more convenient and significantly safer than paying with a credit card or cash,” said Eric O’Brien, managing director at Lightspeed Venture Partners. “Today, the payments industry is an inefficient $60bn industry that closely resembles the telecom industry a decade ago - what is being charged for a payment bears no relationship with the actual cost of processing that payment. This tremendous market opportunity, coupled with a management team unparalleled in track record and industry experience, makes Bling Nation one of the most exciting new investments in Lightspeed’s portfolio.”

Wences Casares, co-CEO of Bling Nation, said, “Just about every consumer is already carrying a small computer, in the form of their mobile phone, with them all the time. This small computer has immense storage capacity, processing power and connectivity, so why should customers carry anything else to make a payment? Why should merchants accept more expense?”

Global venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners has $2bn in capital under management, and offices in the US, China, India, and Israel. Their investments are typically early stage and their portfolio has included Blue Nile, Calista, DoubleClick, eHealth, Galileo Technology, Informatica, Kiva Software, LightLogic, Quantum Effect Devices, Riverbed, and Waveset.

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