Atoa Payments, a UK-based start up that uses open banking to provide merchants with an alternative to debit card payments, has raised USD 6.5 million in seed funding led by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures.
The funding comes after a USD 2.2 million pre-seed led by Leo Capital and Passion Capital in November. By inviting businesses to download the Atoa app and link their merchant bank accounts, the start up is attempting to circumvent the card industry giants. Merchants can start accepting payments via SMS, Pay-by-Link, or QR code after five minutes of setup.
According to Atoa, its system guarantees instant payment rather than the typical one to two days for debit cards and reduces the cost of accepting payments by up to 70%.
