Wednesday, March 4, 2009

CircleUp Launches Online Payment Service

Newport Beach-based CircleUp, a startup developing group communications tools, is setting its eyes on online payments, saying today that it has launched a new service to collect money via email for teams and groups. According to CircleUp, the new service--called SmartPay--will allow teams and groups to collect money via credit or debit cards. CircleUp said that the service is targeted at groups where funds are regularly pooled for events and activity expenses, including things like gifts for coaches, t-shirts, team parties, or dinners. The firm is using a payment service from Amazon.com, Amazon Payments, to enable the feature. The company said the new service will be free to groups, but that payers will be charged a convenience fee of $.99 plus 6.9% of the payment. CircleUp is backed by Sid R. Bass Associates.

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