Boston-born [now Silicon Valley-based] payments company WePay raised $15 million on Thursday in a Series C round, led by Chicago firm Continental Investors and including Highland Capital Partners.
This is the second payment startup spun from the the Hub in which Continental Investors has put capital. The firm, founded by Phil Purcell, Co-founder of Discover Card and former CEO of Morgan Stanley, also invested in Boston mobile payment and loyalty company LevelUp. In June 2012, Continental Investors participated in the first part of LevelUp's $21 million round, a raise considered the final step in the company's transition from its initial focus on the social gaming platform SCVNGR to its current mobile payment app.
In addition to the funding announcement, WePay also publicized its plans to discontinue its consumer offering in order to focus exclusively on its payments API, built specifically for platform businesses such as online marketplaces, crowdfunding sites and small business software. The company currently calls Cambridge's CustomMade and soon-to-IPO Care.com its clients.
WePay founders Bill Clerico and Rich Aberman graduated from Boston College in 2007, and began the startup in Boston in 2008. It wasn't until the team was accepted into Y-Combinator in 2009 that the company moved out to the West Coast.
With consideration to Thursday's round, WePay has raised $35 million in capital since its inception. Founder and former CTO of PayPal Max Levchin and chairman of Yahoo and former COO of eBay Maynard Webb's VC firm Webb Investment Network also participated in the Series C round. Highland Capital's investment was led by West Coast partner Peter Bell.
Read Clerico's November 2013 BostInno guest post, A Bottom-Up Economic Revolution: How Ordinary Americans are Driving Growth & Innovation, here.
