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Kuapay has raised $10.0M across 2 funding rounds.
Key people at Kuapay.
Kuapay has raised $10.0M in total across 2 funding rounds.
Kuapay is a mobile payment application enabling smartphone purchases, based in Santa Monica, California, with offices in Chile and Spain (2012). The platform integrates e-wallet functionality with social and gamified features, including customer loyalty programs, punchcards, and promotional offers via barcode scanning. It raised $4 million from a private Chilean technology investor and had 35 employees as of June 2012. It secured a 100-location pilot deal with a Southern California KFC franchise and planned expansion into Brazil, Canada, and China. Founder and CEO Joaquin Ayuso de Paul is recognized as a co-founder of Tuenti, acquired by Telefonica for $100 million, and founded Kuapay in January 2011. Its business model centers on funded through private investment, generates revenue from merchant services and customer loyalty programs.
Kuapay Technologies, Inc. was a Santa Monica, California-based fintech company that developed a mobile payment application enabling fast, secure payments wherever credit cards were accepted, using a digital wallet with one-time QR codes to protect user privacy and credit card data.[1][2][3] The app served consumers seeking convenient, contactless payments and merchants in retail settings, solving problems like card data exposure and slow transactions by keeping devices in users' hands, offering location-based coupons, loyalty rewards, and receipts—all free for users with per-transaction fees only for merchants.[1][2][3] It achieved early growth with $6.1 million in funding, $9-9.4 million in revenue, adoption by over 600 U.S. merchants by 2013, and international rollout in New York City, Chile, Spain, Colombia, Panama, and the UK, including trials with KFC and Telepizza, though it is now defunct.[1][2][3]
Kuapay was founded in 2010-2011 by Joaquín Ayuso de Pául, a Spanish entrepreneur who previously created and sold Tuenti, a major social networking site.[3] The idea emerged from a passion for mobile technology among its Santa Monica-based team of engineers and creatives, aiming to restore user control over payment privacy in an era of rising mobile commerce.[1][2] Early traction came via a $900,000 seed round in 2011, followed by a $4 million investment in 2012 from a single funder, enabling launches in Santa Monica, NYC, South America, and Spain, with one of the first third-party payment apps live in China and official status in Chile.[3]
Kuapay rode the early 2010s mobile payments wave, capitalizing on smartphone proliferation and demand for contactless alternatives to plastic cards amid rising data breaches.[1][2][3] Its timing aligned with QR code adoption pre-Apple Pay (2014), positioning it as a pioneer in secure, privacy-focused fintech when competitors like Isis and Square focused on NFC hardware.[1][3] Market forces like global merchant digitization and emerging markets' leapfrogging to mobile (e.g., Chile, China) favored its model, influencing the ecosystem by validating QR-based wallets and loyalty integration, which later shaped apps like WeChat Pay and modern digital wallets.[3]
Kuapay exemplified early mobile payment innovation but faded as a defunct entity, likely overtaken by NFC giants and consolidated players post-2013.[3] Its legacy endures in QR-driven security and international strategies now central to fintech. Had it persisted, trends like ubiquitous QR adoption (accelerated by COVID-19 contactless shifts) and embedded finance could have revived it; instead, it underscores the high-stakes race where first-movers like Kuapay paved paths for enduring leaders in privacy-secure payments.[1][2][3]
Key people at Kuapay.
Kuapay has raised $10.0M in total across 2 funding rounds.
Kuapay's investors include Amasia, COREangels, Clearstone.
Kuapay has raised $10.0M across 2 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $8.0M Series B in April 2014.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 1, 2014 | $8M Series B | — | Amasia, Coreangels | Announced |
| Mar 1, 2013 | $2M Series A | — | Clearstone, Coreangels | Announced |
