Smartpay Jieyin Ltd. announced the completion of a $65 million round of equity financing that will be used to further expand the deployment of its Smartpay's electronic payment services in China. Under the terms of the financing, 2b Holdings will lead a group of strategic investors and existing shareholders in providing $65 million in equity financing for Smartpay. 2b Holdings, an investment and advisory services concern, was an initial investor in EachNet, China's leading auction and e-commerce Web site acquired by eBay. In addition, a significant percentage of the capital raised in this round was contributed by Lunar Group alongside existing shareholders and directors of the Company.
Smartpay's CEO, Eric Rosenblum, said "The opportunity to establish an integrated electronic payments service is amongst the most significant in China, and will result in the creation of a highly valuable market leader. Smartpay has established an initial lead in this sector and this current round of financing will allow us to further consolidate and extend our leadership position."
Smartpay operates a consumer electronic payment service in China under the brand name "Jieyin". Chinese consumers utilize Jieyin for the payment of their mobile and VoIP-based long distance phone bills. According to the company's release, a significant number of China's leading mobile operators, with a combined subscriber base of over fifty million consumers, have initially contracted with Smartpay to utilize this service for bill payments. Smartpay will be launching additional direct- to-consumer (D2C) and peer-to-peer (P2P) payment services under the "Jieyin" brand name.
