How online payment gateway Zaakpay is using funds raised from Sequoia; Plans for 2012

Online payments solutions provider Zaakpay had raised a little less than $1 million from Sequoia Capital a few months ago. Although the investment was never publicly announced, Zaakpay figures in the portfolio company list of the venture capital firm. Techcircle.in has caught up with the co-founder Upasana Taku on the deal and how the company is using the funds to scale up.

Delhi-based Zaakpay has two products – Webpay and Bankpay. Webpay involves the process of Web payment in e-commerce transactions including credit and debit cards, Internet banking and cash cards. Bankpay, which will help one manage his/her online and offline one-time and recurring payments, is yet to come live.

Zaakpay was set up by Upasana Taku and Bipin Preet Singh in September 2010. Prior to Zaakpay, Singh had also founded MobiKwik, an online payment recharge option for any prepaid mobile connection via SMS, IVR and mobile apps. Taku had previously worked with HSBC and PayPal. Singh, an IIT Delhi alumnus, had earlier worked with Intel, NVIDIA, Janaagraha, Star Auto India and Freescale Semiconductor.

Talking to Techcircle.in, Taku said, "Of all the transactions which happen online, around 25-35 per cent fail. Zaakpay was born to improve the payment gateway for customer satisfaction."

The funds raised from Sequoia will be used to scale up its operations, which include customer acquisition, working on the technology front and also hiring new talents. Right now a team of eight, the company intends to increase the number to 20 by the end of this year.

Zaakpay has 10 'live' customers and some 100 more are in the pipeline. It aims to acquire 1,000 merchants by the year-end. "The funding is also being used to sign up deals with banks and run PCIDSS certified servers," added Taku.

According to the company, Zaakpay is different from other payment gateways like EBS and CCAvenue. "We follow an online merchant application process. All one needs to do is create an online application and then integration follows."