Payments venture Braintree lands in Oz as eCommerce market heats up

US online and mobile payments platform Braintree, fresh from a $35 million fund raise, has launched in Australia, saying it is looking at the “blistering pace” of innovation in the eCommerce sector.

Braintree has added Australia to the 30-strong list of countries it now services, having already partnered with Aussie tech venture 99designs, along with the likes of Rovio, maker of the Angry Birds game, and Airbnb.

The Braintree platform offers a “frictionless” payment system in 130 currencies for businesses looking to make online transactions.

The business, which launched in 2007 and now handles more than 10% of all mobile eCommerce in the US, received $35 million in October in a funding round led by New Enterprise Associates.

“Innovation in eCommerce and mCommerce is happening at a blistering pace and we see it around the world,” says Bill Ready, CEO of Braintree. “We couldn’t be more excited to see what Australian innovators will build on the Braintree platform.”

He adds: “Historically one of the biggest challenges that Australian start-ups have in getting their business off the ground is that they have limited and antiquated options for payments that are difficult to integrate and require months of development resources.”

“We see mobile as the biggest threat and opportunity for eCommerce merchants. We see that most major ecommerce retailers don’t have mobile optimized sites.”

“It’s an issue because today, 20% of shopping sessions are occurring on a mobile device, and this is growing at 2-3 times per year.”

“However, the conversion rate on mobile is 75% lower than it is online when a retailer has not optimized for mobile.”

“Merchants should not only be optimizing their mobile shopping experiences, but also the payment experience on mobile.”

“We’ve seen tremendous demand from start-ups in Australia. For start-ups, there are limited options, and Australian banks tend to service only larger merchants.”

The launch of Braintree comes as the payments market continues to heat up in Australia, with PayPal rolling out a new in-store technology that will allow retailers to accept customer payments without cash or a credit card.