Mobile payments app Eashmart secures funding from CIIE, others

Delhi-based Cobboc Pvt Ltd, which offers a mobile-based payments app Eashmart, has received an undisclosed amount in funding from IIM-A's tech incubator CIIE (Centre for Innovation, Incubation & Entrepreneurship) and two unnamed angel investors. Eashmart was among the 10 ventures picked for iAccelerator, the flagship programme of CIIE.

The funding news was first reported by Startup Central which said the money raised from this round will be used to improve its technology and to educate the market. The report said, citing its founder, that Eashmart has 10 clients at present.

The startup was founded by Amit Kumar, a B Tech in Avionics from Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (Kerala). Kumar has earlier co-founded Targeter App. Prior to that he was an Android developer at Liquid5. Earlier, he worked as a software engineer at Wingify.

Eashmart enables consumers to use credit/debit cards to make payments for anything, without having to swipe the card in a swipe machine. For instance, if a person wants to order a Pizza from a nearby Pizza Hut, he/she needs to inform the merchant in advance that the payment is to be made through Eashmart.

The user will then receive a notification to make the payment, along with a four-digit PIN which he/she needs to share with the delivery person. The delivery person confirms the same PIN and hand over the item.

One of the key features of this app is that it doesn't require merchants to install any hardware. Also, the delivery boy need not carry swipe machines. While the service is free for consumers, merchants pay a small fee per transaction.

The mobile payments space has been witnessing a lot of activity lately with a slew of startups getting funded.

Recently, Bangalore-based mobile payment solutions provider iKaaz raised an undisclosed amount in seed round of funding led by Ananda Kallugadde, managing director of NeoBytes Software Solutions.

Earlier, Mumbai-based mobile PoS services provider Mswipe Technologies Pvt Ltd raised $10 million in Series B round of funding from Matrix Partners and Axis Bank.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)