Payple raises about 1 billion won from 500 Startups and others

Payple, a fintech startup that offers an integrated online payment service for credit cards and bank transfers, announced on the 28th that it raised about 1 billion won from investors including global venture capital firm 500 Startups. The round was led by 500 Startups and also included existing investors Strong Ventures and Primer.

Payple offers payment methods tailored to a range of fast-growing business models, including subscriptions, memberships and mobility, as well as payment services for online stores. Its service has been particularly well received by subscription businesses. Until now, recurring subscription payments could only be made by credit card, but Payple also enables recurring payments by bank transfer.

According to Statistics Korea, monthly online shopping transactions topped 12 trillion won in July this year, while the e-commerce market exceeded 130 trillion won last year, marking explosive growth. As a result, the payment gateway (PG) market also grew to 199 trillion won last year, more than three times its 2016 size.

Despite this rapid growth, businesses face a number of challenges when implementing online payment functions. Existing payment services have been slow to support a range of programming languages, and there is no comprehensive payment solution that can accommodate diverse business models.

Payple addresses these challenges with a developer-friendly API that supports online payments for diverse business models and can be implemented in any programming language. This allows businesses to significantly reduce the time needed to deploy a payment system tailored to their needs. In recognition of its innovation, Payple was designated an Innovative Financial Service in April 2019, and its designation was extended by two years in July 2020.

Tim Chae, a partner at 500 Startups, which led the investment, said, “We expect the domestic e-commerce market to continue growing, further increasing the need for PG services that can respond quickly.” He added, “Established players hold a large share of the market, but given its size, there is plenty of room for new services like Payple to grow.”

With this investment, Payple plans to develop into a comprehensive B2B financial platform that supports businesses’ financial activities by offering a range of new financial services connected to payments.

Payple CEO Kim Hyun-cheol said, “Drawing on my long experience in the PG market, we are identifying and addressing customer pain points more accurately than anyone else.” He added, “We aim to build a customer-friendly service that can easily and quickly accommodate diverse business models, like Stripe, the U.S. online payments unicorn.”

Payple: https://www.payple.kr/https://www.payple.kr/