Billion rupee startup, PAYable, draws in major investment, gears for accelerated growth

PAYable Co-Founder and incoming CEO Yohan Wijesiriwardane (left) with late co-founder and CEO Sujith Subasinghe

Building on the success of its growing network of merchants and customers, Sri Lanka’s fast-growing startup, PAYable, has announced the successful completion of a round of funding that will set the pace for a new wave of credit and debit card usage and e-commerce led growth in the Sri Lankan economy.

Launched just last year, the revolutionary PAYable cashless mobile payments platform has gained the trust and support of a diverse cross-section of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and entrepreneurs and has become the leading choice for major banks.

PAYable is a free mobile app paired with a free Bluetooth cardreader that enables merchants to accept credit and debit card payments from their customers. A highly reliable, durable and compact card reader, PAYable can be paired with any Android or iOS smart phone or tablet to effectively convert it into a secure, flexible and simple to use mobile Point-of-Sales (POS) solution.

Built on the inspirational and visionary leadership of Sujith Subasinghe, PAYable’s late Co-Founder and CEO together with Co-Founder and incoming CEO, Yohan Wijesiriwardane, the platform is now enjoying rapid growth across Sri Lanka.

Wijesiriwardane said: “It is a very promising time for us at PAYable particularly with the outstanding market success we have enjoyed, leading up to our most recent round of funding. We are inspired by the enthusiastic and overwhelming support our platform has received by everyone in our ecosystem – which includes our merchant end-user and their consumers, the forward-thinking banks who adopted our solution quickly, and guidance provided by our investors who are of the highest calibre.”

“We are committed to driving a revolution in cashless payments. We believe that the future includes a balance between older methods of payment such as cash and cheques, rapidly evolving forms of well-accepted methods such as cards, and emerging methods comprising wallets and other modes of peer to peer online (card-less) payments. Our technology and business strategy encompasses thoughtful considerations of all these factors, as well as what top Fintechs are doing to digitally transform banking and payments,” Wijesiriwardane added.

PAYable launched its first devices in June 2016, has since grown the number of Sri Lankan merchants accepting card payments by 25% in just over a year, and has directly facilitated transactions in excess of Rs. 750 million.

This rapid growth was driven by PAYable’s growing acceptance as the partner of choice by leading banks with others lined up in various stages of testing. The technical strength of PAYable’s platform has resulted in flawless performance when validated by the banks.

Having partnered with three of Sri Lanka’s largest private sector commercial banks and backed by substantial investments from Clarkeview Investments Ltd., PAYable is now implementing a fully market-tested plan to expand its network of merchants to 20,000 by the end of 2018 and 100,000 by 2020. In addition to the growth of its merchant network, Wijesiriwardane stated that major expansions to PAYable’s service offerings are planned, including new products and instruments that will serve to further diversify the types of payments accepted through the system. 

He stated that PAYable would continue to strengthen its well-rounded payment platform with innovations that win the loyalty of customers. PAYable is a start-up that was incubated out of Ceylon Business Appliances Ltd. (CBA), a 47-year old office technology company. CBA’s trusted relationships with banks and expertise in banking systems helped build the foundation of PAYable’s relationships with banks.

PAYable uses the industry’s best-in-class security protocols, such as the PCI DSS Guidelines, a global security standard developed by VISA, MasterCard, and other major card providers. It operates within a secure network that is comprehensively monitored and pressure-tested to maintain the highest standards of security for transaction and cardholder data protection. 

More information is available at www.payable.lk or via telephone on 0117776777.