Accel wants to help you pay rent, invests $50M in YapStone

YapStone, a company that offers payment technology for the property industry, just announced that it has raised $50 million from Accel Partners and Meritech Capital Partners.

The San Francisco company runs a number of e-payment services, including RentPayment, Vacation RentPayment, DuesPayment, and InnPayment. (I think the names are pretty self-explanatory.) YapStone says its technology gives property owners and managers everything they need to accept credit cards and electronic checks, which in turn can lead to big savings. Until now, the company has been funded by co-founders Matt Golis and Tom Villante, and it says it will use the new money to expand into new industries and international markets.

Founded in 1999, YapStone may seem a bit mature for Accel, which is best known as an early investor in Facebook and Groupon. But the firm also has a $480 million growth fund and it recently made large investments into companies that are a bit more established, like Atlassian and 99designs. (Both companies, like YapStone, were self-funded until they accepted money from Accel.)

In the funding press release, Accel partner Todd MacLean (who is joining YapStone’s board) said that “there are still significant opportunities” in the payments industry, specifically “to connect underserved consumer segments to the traditional ecosystem.”