Settle, a new restaurant payment app from Ukraine, has just raised $1.5 million in funding. According to TechCrunch, the soon-to-launch app is a “mobile payment service” that allows users to order, tip, and pay from their smart phone. It aims to “dramatically reduce the time it takes to pay” a restaurant or bar tab. Settle has partnered with many Eastern European banks so the app is connected “directly to a user’s bank card without Settle having to store that card information themselves.”
There are a host of companies attempting to make settling your bill at a restaurant ‘waiter-free’, by employing a smartphone app and accompanying mobile payment and POS system. These include behemoths such as PayPal, with its ‘Pay At Table‘ service, along with upstarts such as U.S.-based Dash, Tabbedout, and Cover, the UK’s Flypay, and Tel Aviv-basedMyCheck (which itself is partnering with PayPal). Now aptly-named Settle is putting its wares on the table. The Ukrainian startup has just closed a $1.5 million funding round from Moscow-based venture fund Life.SREDA — capital it will use to power its roll out across Eastern Europe, where it hopes to achieve first-mover advantage. First up will be Kiev next week, followed by debuts in Moscow and Warsaw. Like its many potential competitors, Settle provides a mobile payment service for restaurant-goers. Its soon-to-launch app lets you order, settle the tab, and tip from your smartphone, aiming to dramatically reduce the time it takes to pay your bar or restaurant bill. Thanks to partnerships with a number of Eastern European banks, the app connects directly to a user’s bank card without Settle having to store that card information themselves.