OREANDA-NEWS. October 11, 2012. Nikolai Zhmurenko, SKOLKOVO Startup Academy graduate, CEO and Founder of Smartfin, has attracted USD 1,6 million investments from the InVenture Partners fund for his project development.

The Russian startup Smartfin has designed and now is implementing the pocket payment terminal 2can on the Russian market. 2can is an innovative service for acceptance of payments with banking cards that enables any service enterprise to use a smart phone or tablet computer as a secure mobile gadget for acceptance of payments with banking cards anywhere and anytime. The pocket terminal 2can is a special application and card reader that transform a smart phone into a terminal for acceptance of the Visa and MasterCard banking cards. The 2can platform is aimed at Internet shops and entrepreneurs who due to financial or organizational reasons can’t install traditional terminals for banking cards at their trade points.

The 2can service is a Russian design, analogue of the American service Square which started with USD 10 million in the A round in 2009, and had attracted more than 2 million clients by today and was estimated at B USD 3,25 billion in the D round in September.

2can was established in November 2011 by Nikolai Zhmurenko, SKOLKOVO Startup Academy graduate (earlier – CFO of the national communication operator Sinterra), and Yuri Vladimirov (earlier – CFO of the Inoventica group of companies). The total sum of partners’ investments in the projects is about USD 300 thousand. It has been invested in the initial business launch, design of the first version of the applications for the Android and iOS gadgets and the processing system that enables the secure payment handling. Apart from that the security is achieved through the data encoding already on the stage of readout from a consumer’s card. Applying of the special card reader with the encoding function is a significant security element recommended by international payment systems on the basis of similar services experience.

Visa and Promsvyazbank have become the first official partners of the 2can project. The international payment system Visa has certified the 2can service, and Promsvyazbank has become the bank-acquirer. The service was launched on September 21, 2012. For now the clients who has signed up at 2can.ru and signed a contact with the company can get the card reader free of charge.

USD 1,6 million investments will be applied for the 2can service technical and commercial development, partnership retail network creation and marketing promotion. Moreover it is planned to integrate 2can with a wide range of banks that will enable them to provide their clients with mobile acquiring opportunities together with Smartfin.

“In Russia more than 190 million of plastic cards have been emitted, and the annual turnover expands 16 trillion rubles. However the majority of card holders prefer to use them just to get cash at ATMs. It is no wonder as in Russia only 17% of enterprises working with individuals accept banking cards, - assesses Nikolai Zhmurenko, CEO and founder of Smartfin, about 2can potential on the Russian market. – We believe that entrepreneurs will highly appreciate the potential of the solution that enables comfort and security of payments for consumers, and by the end of 2012 our client base will have comprised several thousands of devices, and by 2012 it will have expanded to several tens of thousands”.

“The 2can project is interesting for us because of the opportunity to scale the payment solution of the company really fast taking into account the mobile acquiring potential in Russia, - comments Anton Inshutin, managing partner of InVenture Partners. – We will attentively follow up the project development and back it up financially as well as in terms networking with potential clients in the sphere of e-coomerce”.