“Today marks a significant milestone for Plynk. From the beginning, it has been our aim to remove the complexities and awkwardness of person-to-person payments. This funding brings us closer to fulfilling this goal; first across Europe and soon worldwide,” said Charles Dowd, CEO and Co-Founder of Plynk.
Plynk was co-founded in 2015 by Charles Dowd and Clive Foley in response to the need for an easy-to-use consumer application enabling the instant, effortless and transparent transfer of money among friends. Linked to users’ Facebook accounts, Plynk users can send money as a message to a single contact or in group chats instantly and with no fees. Once a Plynk account is created, users receive a dedicated IBAN and virtual Mastercard for online payments. In addition, the application plans to integrate with both Apple and Android Pay, enabling users to spend their money across multiple outlets.
Leading this round of funding is Swiss Privée Ltd, a private investment trust. The successful raise is one of the largest Series A investments to come out of Ireland.
Following a soft launch in January 2017, Plynk already have over 6,000 users across Android and iOS within the Irish market, however has plans to expand further into Europe with eyes on Spain and Portugal next.
“Our growth plan is simple: ‘become a verb, in every European language.’ Over 2017, we will use this secured funding to expand into new markets as well as add GBP to our platform. Hiring will also be a priority, adding more team members to continue development on our core product and to build more features unique to the social payments industry,” added Dowd.
The Plynk app launched in January 2017 initially targeting the 18-25 market: “Today sending a photo, video, or chat to a friend has become second nature to students, graduates and young adults. This cohort have become accustomed to the free and instant transfer of data using purely their mobile phone. This is also the generation that can see when their friend is typing. No wonder they find it hard to fathom that a bank transfer can take days,” added Dowd, formerly of Facebook.
