Difference Capital leads first tranche of $12-million Series D in Carta Worldwide

Just in time for the launch of Apple’s entry into the mobile payment space, Apple Pay, Carta Worldwide has closed the first tranche of a $12-million Series D.

Led by Toronto-based merchant bank Difference Capital and DC Thomson (UK), the $7-million investment will add to the more than $50-million the company has invested in its digital transaction processing platform.

Part of the problem Apple will look to solve is the preponderance of legacy systems that are not up to speed with new technologies like Near Field Communications. Carta’s platform allows these systems to upgrade, enabling next-gen features such as embedded SE security and tokenization.

“We are very excited about the explosive growth in mobile payments, and the recent Apple Pay announcement will fuel more growth,” said CEO Brian Semkiw. “The world of payments is now on a firm path of NFC adoption. Thanks to new technologies including tokenization and HCE, card portfolios can be easily digitized for all NFC smartphones including Android and iPhone. We’re embarking on a very exciting year for mobile payment adoption.

Difference Capital Managing Partner Tom Liston talked about the the size of the space.

“This year alone, mobile payment transactions are expected to reach $507 billion, globally. North American mobile transactions have almost doubled since last year, now accounting for 17 percent of transactions made, with a total of about $37 billion in 2013,” said Liston. “We foresee the accelerated adoption of NFC enabled Point of Sale (POS) terminals as a positive catalyst for Carta.”

Founded in 2007, Carta Worldwide is a Swiss company with operations located in London, Hong Kong, Miami and Barbados. The company recently opened an office in Prince Edward Island as a base for its North American operations.