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eCommerce - Wednesday, March 29, 2006

$27.4M Goes to PayPal Competitor Bill Me Later

One of the biggest reasons more people don't do eCommerce is fear of credit card fraud. I4 Commerce addresses this and is profiting handsomely. The company runs Bill Me Later, which raised $27.4M from Kingdon Capital Management, Crosspoint Venture Partners, Azure Capital Partners and GRP Partners.

I4 approves buyers over the Web with instant credit and bills them later. It has raised about $80M in funding to date and expects to be profitable this year.

With Bill Me Later, a customer clicks an icon to make a payment and is asked to submit just their date of birth and the last four digits of their social security number. An authorization is generated, and a bill from Bill Me Later comes in the mail. The merchant gets paid within 24 hours. Clients include Priceline.com, Wal-Mart and Tiger Direct.

The company is run by credit card jocks like CEO Gary Marino who was a honcho with First USA/Bank One.