Bill payment app Papaya raises $50 million

Papaya, a mobile application that simplifies bill payments for US consumers, has picked up $50 million in a Series B funding round.

The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners with participation from Sequoia Capital, Acrew Capital, 01 Advisors, Mucker Capital, Fika Ventures, F-Prime, and Sound Ventures.

Papaya lets users take a photo of any bill – ranging from parking tickets, to utilities and phone bills, to medical invoices – select a payment method and send it through the Papaya app.

The company says it is able to reach every single business in the United States that issues bills through its AI-based ‘bill understanding technology’.

Patrick Kann, co-founder and CEO of Papaya, says: “American families’ greatest source of stress and anxiety is finances. With a user-friendly app and single photo of a bill, Papaya’s technology eases that pain point, which motivates us all,” .

Papaya currently facilitates payments for hundreds of thousands of businesses and organisations in the US, he says. Beyond the mobile app, Papaya integrates with partners’ billing processes through embedded widget technologies and paper statements.

Kann, with experience in banking and stints at the World Bank and IdeaLab, co-founded Papaya with computer vision scientist and chief technology officer Jason Meltzer. Meltzer worked at iRobot, where he led development for the computer vision technology behind the Roomba.

Kann says the new investment will be used to expand the team, forge additional partnerships, and to continue building out the technology.