Europe's fastest growing mobile payments app Yoyo raises $15.3m
Mobile payment and customer engagement platform Yoyo Wallet has raised £12m ($15.3m) in a series B round led by German retailer Metro Group. The UK-based fintech - the fastest-growing mobile payments app in Europe - enables its 400,000 registered users to make payments using their smartphones, and offers tailored rewards based on customer data. CEO Alain Falys said the funding would help the company take its product to a "wider array of retailers, large and small, in the UK and across Europe".
Yoyo Wallet, Europe's fastest growing mobile payments app, raised £12 million ($15.3 million) in a Series B round, it announced on Monday. The deal was led by German retail giant Metro Group, and awaits approval from the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority.

The U.K.-based fintech app began life four years ago, servicing dozens of U.K. and Irish universities. It now allows its 400,000 registered users to pay for goods using their smartphones in over 1,700 outlets, including Caffé Nero and Planet Organic.

"Yoyo is now delivering proven benefits to a rapidly growing number of merchants and their customers in universities, corporate campuses and the High Street," Alain Falys, Yoyo Wallet's co-founder and chief executive officer, announced on Monday.

"This new funding will allow us to provide the benefits of customer identification and mobile engagement to a wider array of retailers, large and small, in the U.K. and across Europe. We could not have found a better combination of Investors to support us through this next stage of growth."

The app is one of many mobile payment apps replacing physical payment, with its own personalized loyalty and rewards programs. It uses customer data to help retailers tailor rewards programs that appeal to individual consumers.

"Consumers are spending more than three hours a day on their smartphones and 40 percent buy more when subject to a personalized shopping experience," Falys added. "Yoyo simply provides all retailers with an accessible way of tapping into these behaviors."