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Boston based mobile payments company LevelUp has announced a $50m funding round, including $37m in equity funding led by JP Morgan and $13m in debt financing from CentroCredit bank. LevelUp is the largest open mobile payments network. Consumers use their LevelUp account to pay with their smart device or web browser, demonstrating the fastest and easiest way to pay.
Nine-year-old LevelUp had previously raised around $48 million in equity funding, Shuck said. The company’s other investors include GV and Highland Capital Partners. LevelUp started out as SCVNGR, offering a text-message-based platform that corporations, associations, and nonprofits could use to set up interactive scavenger hunts and other on-site activities. It later introduced a consumer app that took a gamified approach to location “check-ins,” and then added a deals service called LevelUp that incentivized consumers to unlock additional discounts after making an initial discounted purchase. The company eventually shut down the SCVNGR app, ditched that name, and moved into mobile payments processing, primarily for the restaurant industry.
