Citrus Payments discloses Series A worth $2M from Sequoia Capital

Mumbai-based online payments company Citrus Payments Solutions Pvt Ltd has disclosed that the amount it raised from VC firm Sequoia Capital as its Series A funding was to the tune of $2 million.

The investment was first reported in June last year, but the amount was not disclosed. Talking to Techcircle, Mohit Bhatnagar, managing director, Sequoia Capital stated, "The company has reached a certain milestone and that is why we want to announce the investment now. This is part of a larger round but we are announcing $2 million as of now." Bhatnagar is also on the board of Citrus Payments.

Set up in 2011 by Satyen Kothari and Jitendra Gupta, Citrus offers online payments and e-mail invoicing solutions. Kothari said the amount is being utilised mainly for research and development and for product enhancement and marketing. Talking about the milestone that the company has hit Kothari stated, "We have on board more than 550 merchants as of now which includes companies from travel, e-commerce, entertainment and more. Some of our partners are Redbus, Airtel, Pepperfry, DTH and Yebhi.com. This is one of the biggest achievements for us."

He said the company aims to take the number to more than 2,000 by the year end.

The company has also announced a new product called Citrus Checkout, which it claims to be a Paypal equivalent for India. "We will ensure a much faster, 2-step checkout for consumers with our new product," Kothari said.

Sequoia has in its kitty another online payment company called Prizm Payments in which it has invested around $8 million. The VC firm has also invested  around $1 million in another online payments solutions provider Zaakpay.

(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)