Earlier reports of mobile payments provider Square raising $100 million that arose in June are now confirmed thanks to a Form D filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Chief operating officer Keith Rabois said the company is processing nearly $4 million in payments every day, and it expects to surpass $1 billion by year’s end. The company is signing up between 30,000 and 50,000 new merchants each month. The new funding round reportedly values Square at more than $1 billion, well above the company’s previous valuation of $240 million from its last funding round.
The company issues small card-reader dongles that plug into a smartphone’s headphone jack. Users then swipe a credit card through the reader, which transmits all that information to Square’s mobile application. The application is popular with small business owners who don’t want to deal with the larger transaction costs or equipment fees that other banks and business infrastructure providers sell.
If you still need evidence of Square’s rock star status in the startup world, Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures and former Obama chief economy adviser Larry Summers are joining the company’s board. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey founded Square.
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