Mobile POS maker Payhere receives $84.2 mn in Series A funding 

Mobile point-of-sale (POS) system maker Payhere Inc. announced Tuesday it received 10 billion won ($8.4 million) in Series A funding from Softbank Ventures Asia and Hashed. 

With the fresh injection of funds, Payhere’s accumulated total funding stands at 12 billion won so far.  

Softbank Ventures Asia is a global early-stage investment arm of SoftBank Group and Hashed is a venture capital and accelerator firm focused on fintech companies. Both are based in Seoul. 

Payhere provides cloud-based mobile POS service that is downloadable to tablets and smartphones. Its biggest draw is being able to take in orders or make payments without a physical equipment taking up space. 

Payhere also does away with monthly fees, transaction fees and penalty charges usually associated with conventional POS devices. 

When the startup launched in February, it targeted small business owners. Fast forward to now, it has more than 9,000 users around the peninsula thanks to franchise customers like the Taegeukdang Bakery.

Payhere plans to utilize the latest round of funding for hiring new talent in all departments including R&D, design, and marketing to take the leap into becoming a total store management platform. The new service aims to cater to small and mid-sized businesses alike. 

Hashed CEO and Managing Partner Simon Seo-joon Kim pointed out, “Payhere’s monthly turnover surged 13-fold in the last year.” Kim expects the startup’s services to reach industries that have not been able to use physical POS devices like those of education, beauty, and sports. 

Kim is confident Payhere will “penetrate into the offline payment industry," which has been slow to change. 

Choi Dong-eon, Senior Associate at Softbank Ventures Asia said, “I am hopeful Payhere can scale up to become a force of innovation in the payment market like US-based Square or Toast.” 

Choi elaborated the startup boasts a high level of customer satisfaction based on settings optimized for mobile usage and stable system. 

“For decades, POS has been trapped in the hardware and users had to take the brunt of the physical, functional, and financial burden that comes with the physicality,” said Payhere founder Park Jun-gi.

Park emphasized his startup presents a new paradigm where users can use a service for when they want and on a hardware device that is more desirable than a clunky equipment. He added Payhere is also free of what he dubs unreasonable stipulations and unnecessary costs. 

Write to Dong-hyun Kim at 3code@hankyung.com
Jee Abbey Lee edited this article.