Big News.

Today we are announcing the close of $25.5 million in Series B funding.
Andreessen Horowitz led the round and General Partner Scott Weiss joined Jumio’s board of directors. Jumio’s earlier investors include Eduardo Saverin, co-founder of Facebook, TIBCO Software Inc., a global leader of enterprise software solutions and Peng T. Ong, board director at SingTel, founder of Match.com, Interwoven and Encentuate. Jumio was founded by Daniel Mattes in 2010 and has raised $32 million to date.

Jumio’s patent-pending Netswipe solution turns any webcam into a secure credit card reader, allowing merchants to easily and efficiently accept payments online, making it the first and only solution that enables online card-present transactions.  Additionally, Jumio offers a solution for mobile phones and tablets.
Jumio will use the new funding for team growth and product development.

Verifying a user online – Jumio introduces Netverify

Today we also unveiled Netverify, the company’s newest product for online merchants.
Built with the same patent-pending technology as Netswipe, Netverify turns any camera into an ID reader. It is the easiest way for website owners to confirm a customer’s identity in real time. Netverify eliminates the need for consumers to scan and fax copies of their ID. Instead, they simply hold their ID up to a camera (webcam, mobile phone, tablet), Netverify scans it and the merchant gets an instant verification.
Netverify is designed as a stand-alone tool when an online identification of a user is necessary or as back-up security measure in the sensitive online payment space. With Netverify users do not need any additional hardware.

“Netswipe has been very well-received in the market and Netverify is already making a difference for our customers. There is a real need for seamless, accurate and secure online payments and the possibility to identify a person online. Andreessen Horowitz’ confidence in and involvement with Jumio is a strong indicator of its potential for the market.” – Daniel Mattes, founder and CEO, Jumio.

“Daniel and the Jumio team understand the challenges facing online merchants when it comes to battling credit card and identity fraud because they’re dyed-in-the-wool entrepreneurs themselves and they have encountered the problems that Jumio aims to solve. Jumio’s technology is a huge leap forward for online payments with potential to transform even more industries.” – Scott Weiss, general partner, Andreessen Horowitz

“I am excited to be part of this company. Jumio’s approach is both technologically disruptive and user-friendly in a payments market which is desperate for consumer centric innovation.” – Eduardo Saverin, Facebook co-founder and director on the board of Jumio.

We are proud to introduce Netswipe: The  solution that reduces fraud for merchants and that makes online and mobile payments easier and more secure than ever.

Today we unveiled a new technology solution for businesses to increase security and ease of use for online and mobile credit card payments. The patent pending Netswipe solution turns a webcam into a secure credit card reader that allows merchants to more easily and efficiently accept payments online.

Here’s what founder Daniel Mattes has to say:

Jumio bridges the gap between the security and trust of credit card payments at the point of sale and the availability and convenience of modern day online transactions.

Consumers love the ease-of-use and the smooth experience associated with completing a transaction. At a time when both consumers and businesses are looking for more efficient and safe ways to make credit card purchases, Netswipe promises to usher in a new era of disruption that makes online payments easier than ever before.

Bringing Card Present Transactions Online

Netswipe is the first and only solution that enables online card-present-transactions: Checking out just like at the point of sale (POS). To complete a transaction, consumers briefly hold their credit card in front of their webcam. Through secure videostreaming, the credit card details are being recognized and verfied. No snapshot image is being taken, no data is stored on the computer that is used for the payment.

A More Efficient Payment Technology for Merchants

Business owners can implement Jumio’s Netswipe service into their payment process to reduce fraud and increase sales due to a heightened user experience.

During our pilot phase, we have conducted a customer survey with a focus group who have used Netswipe.  Amongst other impressive numbers, the churn rate decreased significantly from 52% to 21%.

With the launch, Jumio has introduced three products for merchants that simplify the online payment process: Netswipe Start, Netswipe Scanning and Netswipe Processing. Additional products including a mobile solution will be released later this year.

Partners, High Profile Board of Directors

Jumio’s pre-launch negotiations attracted an impressive list of partners. Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, member of the Jumio board of directors, previously led a Series A funding round of US$ 6.5m and will oversee Jumio’s rollout into the Asian market.

The Facebook co-founder has the word.

I am very excited to be involved with Jumio, which has developed a ground breaking technology that fulfills two of the most important aspects of payments processing: heightened security and a simplified user experience.

Additionally, Jumio’s advisory board includes former executives from Google, Amazon and NASA.

We like this ad.
And we are promised a waterslide of equal or greater proportion around our office building.

Inspired by a cool article we stumbled (link below) across that illuminates not one but four different payment systems for e-commerce. What they all have in common is some sort of hardware tool – ranging from a simple card to a funky digital wallet. (We suspect this was also the wallet of choice for a certain Captain Kirk.)

But seriously, folks.
1) Credit and Smart Cards. Most common (90% in North America)
2) Electronic Bill Presentment Payment (EBPP) for recurring payments.
3) The beforementioned Digital Wallet
4) Mobile payment with your, yes, mobile device. Growing rapidly in Asia and Europe.

Read the whole article here on Pixelcrayons, and enjoy the brilliant stock imagery (we suspect). What’s your favourite payment system?

Here I am, sitting in the French part of the Silicon Valley (Le Vallee, as we call it), and it’s time to moan.

Why is it that something we have to do daily, wherever we go and whoever we deal with can be clustered with unnecessary obstacles and frustrating limitations? All through the day, money changes hands. Clumsy cash transactions, cumbersome bank transfers. I know, it’s all necessary, it’s all good, but I feel there has to be a way to simplify it all.

Stating the obvious now: Jumio is working on such a solution. We’ll let you know the details in due time. But for now, let’s look at facts and misconceptions about how we pay or can’t pay in our daily lives.

As a private person I can’t accept credit cards. This might not be true in some countries, but can be quite an issue in others. No universal solution there yet.

Money transfer requires a bank. Again: True in some cases, false in others. Small payments are usually cash transactions that don’t require the electronic or personal assistance of a bank. But then again, that means that you always have to carry around a bit of cash for that quick hot dog or a can of Coke on the street corner.

Credit card fraud is a major concern. And these days, credit card fraud without the actual credit card is the way to go if you’re a hip card fraudster. Phishing is a phenomenon not just attributed to following a popular band, but a real concern for online credit card users. Credit card not present at transaction fraud is on the rise. That’s a fact.

We are not here to cause paranoia. We are here to create awareness for payment issues. And we’re here to make it better. We’ll tell you more next time and over the coming months.