Mobile bill payment app Papaya raises $50M Series B

Los Angeles-based mobile bill payment app Papaya announced that it has raised a $50 million Series B led by Bessemer Venture Partners, bringing its total capital raised to $65 million. 

Sequoia Capital, Acrew Capital, 01 Advisors, Mucker Capital, Fika Ventures, F-Prime, and Sound Ventures also participated in the round. 

Founded in 2016 by Jason Meltzer and Patrick Kann, Papaya offers an AI-powered mobile app that allows users to pay any bill – ranging from parking tickets, to utilities and phone bills, to medical invoices – by taking a photo of it, choosing how to pay, and sending it through the app. 

“The Papaya team and I are driven by our deep desire to build a business that can scale and have a massive, positive impact for the greatest number of people. 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,” said Patrick Kann, Co-founder and CEO of Papaya.

The company plans to use the fund to expand its team to keep pace with increasing demand, to forge additional partnerships, and to continue building its industry-changing technology.

“Patrick and Jason have built the technology and assembled an extraordinary, mission-driven team to reshape the bill payment process and empower businesses and consumers to operate with a new level of efficiency and sophistication,” said Charles Birnbaum, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. “We’re excited to support Papaya as they continue to build out their platform.”