Coda Payments scores $2m funding from IMJ, other investors

Coda Payments, a Singapore-based company that allows payments without credit cards, has secured US$2 million in funding from IMJ Investment Partners and existing investors GMO Global Payment Fund, Golden Gate Ventures, and Skype co-founder Toivo Annus.

This represents the company’s “series A-2” round, CEO Neil Davidson tells Tech in Asia. It brings Coda’s total funding to US$5.2 million to date (it raised US$2.3 million series A in December 2013 and US$900,000 seed in 2012).

Neil says they will use the money to bring Coda to more markets, but he refuses to disclose the details. A portion of the funds will also be spent to further develop Codashop, which distributes gift codes from popular gaming platforms such as Steam.

Coda helps digital content providers, such as Baidu, Alibaba’s UCWeb, Kunlun, Garena, and dozens other game developers, collect payments from customers in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The payments can be made through bank transfers, cash payments at convenience stores, vouchers, and ewallets.

The company also works with telcos to allow users to make purchases on the web or in apps by deducting money from their prepaid mobile credit or charging it to their postpaid bill.

For mobile operators, Coda claims to increase subscriber loyalty and generate higher revenue. For merchants, it helps reach consumers who can’t pay using traditional methods.

Yasuhiro Seo, a partner at IMJ, says Coda is in a position “no other aggregator can match.”

Coda accepts payments from more than 500 million customers across Southeast Asia, with transactions on the platform pegged at 17,000 daily.

The company is also backed by Rakuten and CyberAgent Ventures.