‘Skype of payments’ Droplet bags £575,000 Crowdcube funding

Droplet, a fee-free mobile payment system, has closed £574,650 in an oversubscribed seed crowdfunding round on Crowdcube taking its total investment to £1.4m.

Dubbed the ‘Skype of payments’, the Birmingham start-up overfunded its original target by 115 per cent with support from 328 investors including the Boris Johnson-backed London Co-Investment Fund.

Founded in 2012, Droplet is an app which allows users to take cashless payments without any transaction fees; making money from optional bolt-ons such as loyalty rewards.

Since launch the FCA-registered company has signed up over 600 businesses nationwide, 18,000 users and secured five star ratings in the App Store.

With the crowdfunding secured, the business is now seeking to create communities of users in 20 major cities across the UK within the next 12 months, having already established a presence in Brighton, Cambridge, Exeter, Glasgow, Leeds, Norwich and Sheffield.

Droplet’s CEO and co-founder, Steffan Aquarone, commented: “It’s a painful pill for the big players in the industry to swallow but in today’s world, people won’t do what their bank tells them to. This isn’t because they hate their bank: it’s because of a fundamental shift in consumer behaviour.

“Now, when people see something new that they like, they can switch to it in a few seconds. Despite huge investment, the traditional players are struggling to build intuitive, mobile-ready payments systems that people want to use.”

“We’re now looking forward to using the funds raised to help further disrupt the payments industry – it certainly needs it.”