Clinkle is a technology company.
Clinkle has raised $30.0M across 2 funding rounds.
Key people at Clinkle.
Clinkle has raised $30.0M in total across 2 funding rounds.
Key people at Clinkle.
Clinkle has raised $30.0M in total across 2 funding rounds.
Clinkle's investors include Acequia Capital, Citi Ventures, Zachary Bogue, First Round Capital, Gideon Yu, Goat Capital, Khosla Ventures, Kima Ventures, Glenn Solomon, Samsung NEXT Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Sequoia Capital.
Clinkle was a mobile payments technology company founded in 2011 by Lucas Duplan, aiming to create a consumer-facing mobile wallet integrated with a merchant system requiring minimal infrastructure changes. It targeted peer-to-peer payments, primarily serving college students and young consumers, with the goal of simplifying digital transactions and offering merchants customer insights for targeted promotions. Despite raising a record-breaking $25-30 million in seed funding from prominent investors, Clinkle struggled to launch a successful product and ultimately ceased operations around 2016[1][2][3].
The company originated from Duplan’s interest in mobile payments during a study abroad in London and was developed with a team of Stanford students. Early traction included a beta test at Stanford and high-profile investor interest, including from Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, and Peter Thiel. However, Clinkle’s initial technology, which used high-frequency sound for payments, failed to gain market traction against competitors like Venmo and Apple Pay. After pivoting to a rewards-based debit card called "Treats," the company faced internal turmoil, layoffs, and resignations, never achieving sustainable growth or market impact[2][3][4].
Clinkle emerged during a surge in mobile payment innovation, riding the trend of digitizing peer-to-peer financial transactions. Its timing coincided with the rise of competitors like Venmo and Apple Pay, which quickly captured market share with more user-friendly and technologically robust solutions. Clinkle’s failure highlights the challenges startups face in highly competitive fintech sectors dominated by established players and the critical importance of product-market fit, speed to market, and user trust in payments technology.
Clinkle serves as a cautionary tale about the risks of overhyped startups in fintech, especially those attempting to disrupt entrenched payment systems without a proven, scalable product. While the company itself is defunct, its story underscores ongoing trends in mobile payments: the need for seamless user experience, secure and fast transactions, and integration with merchant ecosystems. Future innovation in this space will likely focus on these areas, learning from Clinkle’s missteps in execution and market timing.
Clinkle has raised $30.0M across 2 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $5.0M Series A in August 2013.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 1, 2013 | $5.0M Series A | Acequia Capital, Citi Ventures, Zachary Bogue, First Round Capital, Gideon Yu, Goat Capital, Khosla Ventures, Kima Ventures, Glenn Solomon, Samsung NEXT Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Sequoia Capital, SLVC, SV Angel, Tribe Capital, True Ventures, Biz Stone, Dennis Crowley, Esther Dyson, Jim Pitkow, Joshua Schachter, Marissa Mayer, Megan Quinn | |
| Jun 1, 2013 | $25.0M Seed | Lowercarbon Capital, Offline Ventures, Polychain Capital, Prefix Capital, Rivet Ventures, Sequoia Capital Israel, Tribe Capital, True Ventures, Augusto Marietti, Bobby Goodlatte, David Prager, Joe Stump, Joshua Schachter, Karl Jacob, Philip Kaplan, Tim Ferriss |
