MishiPay Raises £3.5M Series A to Scale Its Mobile Self-Checkout Technology Across Europe
June 19, 2024
MishiPay, the London-based retail technology company, has raised £3.5 million in a Series A funding round to accelerate the expansion of its mobile self-checkout platform. The round was led by American Express Ventures and Nauta Capital, with participation from United Ventures. The investment will support MishiPay's growth across Europe and enable deeper integrations with major retail chains looking to modernise their in-store checkout experience.
MishiPay was founded in 2015 by Mustafa Khanwala, Tanvi Bhardwaj, and Jack Lancaster. Khanwala, an engineer who studied at UCL, has described the original inspiration as a frustrating personal experience: waiting 20 minutes to buy a soda at a busy store. From that moment, he set out to build a checkout system with no tills, no queues, and no friction. The company spent two years developing and trialling the technology in multiple countries before launching commercially, and by 2019 Khanwala and Bhardwaj were named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.
MishiPay's platform allows shoppers to scan product barcodes using their smartphone camera, pay directly through the app, and leave the store without visiting a checkout counter. The system integrates with retailers' existing payment and inventory infrastructure at a fraction of the cost of hardware-heavy solutions, and incorporates security measures — including RFID-based theft prevention that automatically disables security tags upon confirmed payment — to address loss prevention concerns that have historically made retailers cautious about cashierless approaches. The platform is available on both iOS and Android.
Early retail partners include Decathlon, the world's largest sporting goods retailer, and MediaMarktSaturn, Europe's largest electronics chain, both of which deployed MishiPay to reduce checkout times and improve the shopping experience for their customers. In the UK, MUJI and Flying Tiger Copenhagen adopted the technology as part of their response to COVID-19 store capacity constraints, with Flying Tiger eventually making MishiPay the only checkout method in 58 of its UK stores.
The Series A funding positions MishiPay to grow its engineering and commercial teams, deepen retailer integrations in Europe, and prepare for further international expansion. The backing from American Express Ventures is particularly strategic, providing connections across the payments and retail industries and validating MishiPay's position in the omnichannel commerce ecosystem.
Sources
Thank you to our Patrons & Partners:
