X.com Partners for International Expansion With $30 Million In Equity Financing
Internet Payments Leader Taps Credit Agricole and Other Strategic Investors
To Help Make Payments Service Available Abroad
PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- In a move designed to aid the
international expansion of its leading online payment service, X.com
( x.com ) today announced a strategic investment round of
$30 million, led by the investment arm of top French retail bank,
Credit Agricole. X.com, provider of the popular X.com PayPal service, allows
people and businesses to send and receive money instantly and securely via the
Internet. The company, which currently serves more than 3.3 million U.S.
customers, plans to use Series D investors to help provide X.com's payment
service in the European Union, Japan, South America and other countries. The
international investments in this round reflect the worldwide market
opportunity for X.com's planned international payments exchange network, and
the potential of its wireless service.
"X.com is creating a new, global payment system that will revolutionize
payments by making them faster, more convenient, more secure, and much less
expensive to process," said Elon Musk, X.com founder and Chief Executive
Officer. "Our strategic partners share this vision, which is why we received
an increased valuation for the company despite bearish capital markets."
X.com To Expand Internationally
X.com accounts are currently available only to users with U.S. email and
physical addresses. X.com plans to expand internationally in three phases.
Phase I, to be launched early this fall, will allow non-U.S. residents to open
X.com accounts in the United States, in U.S. dollars. This will allow them to
send and receive U.S. dollar payments within the United States, and should
help increase foreign sales for U.S. e-commerce sites, including auctions.
Phase II, to be launched later this year, will create local currency online
payment exchanges within the EU countries, Japan, and South America. Phase
III, expected next year, will allow instant, online international payment
transactions between people in different countries involving different
currencies.
Key Milestones
Since Spring 2000, X.com introduced the following new services and
features:
Buyer Protection Guarantee
With its Buyer Protection Guarantee, X.com is the first email payments
service to protect consumers from online transaction fraud. Consumers who
send online payments through X.com to recipients that have verified their
account with the company will now have their transaction 100% guaranteed
against fraud.
Wireless Payments
X.com's PayPal service is available for use by Web-enabled mobile phone.
Users can send payments, send or respond to payment requests, and check
balance and transaction histories.
Business Accounts
In June, X.com extended its P2P service to businesses. For a 1.9%
transaction fee on received payments, businesses (and individuals) can send
and receive payments online and take advantage of additional features and
services provided to X.com's fee-bearing accounts. With no advertising or
marketing, the company has already registered more than 150,000 Business and
Premier accounts.
Web Accept
Web Accept gives X.com business customers the ability to accept payments
directly on their e-commerce site. This eliminates the need for shoppers to
repeatedly enter credit card information or leave the Web site when making an
online purchase. Shoppers send payment by clicking on a pre-embedded X.com
button and entering their X.com password or credit card number. The payment
is sent instantly to the business' X.com PayPal account.
Mass Payments
This feature lets X.com Business and Premier accountholders send large
numbers of different payment amounts simultaneously online by simply visiting
the X.com site and uploading a file of email addresses and amounts.
Traditionally, businesses have mailed paper checks to customers through
regular mail -- an expensive, slow, and labor-intensive practice prone to
error and loss. Because X.com's Mass Payments feature is similar to direct
deposit, every transaction can be made instantly and at much lower cost -- the
lesser of $0.25 or 2% of the amount sent.
Auction Tools
The leading payment service for online auctions, with over half of eBay's
4 million auctions listing X.com's PayPal as their preferred payment method,
X.com provides auction sellers with numerous features to facilitate swift
settlement.
Accounting Tools
X.com provides its paying customers with downloadable transaction logs,
compatible with Intuit(R) Quicken or QuickBooks and Microsoft Excel(R), to
simplify accounting for businesses and consumers.
X.com is the #1 financial Website (receiving more Internet visitors than
any bank or brokerage) and the 50th most-visited Web property, according to
independent metrics monitor PC Data Online. X.com users conduct over
100,000 transactions per day, with an annualized transaction volume of more
than $1.6 billion. Approximately 20,000 new users register with X.com each
day.
X.com is the clear market leader in the online person-to-person payments
space. X.com's PayPal service is the preferred online payment service for
online community and group websites, including eGroups and eCircles, and the
online event-planning service Evite. X.com's PayPal is also the leading
payment service for online auctions, accepted by more than half of all
auctions on eBay -- more than any other payment service.
In April, X.com announced a $100 million Series C funding round, led by
Madison Dearborn Partners.
About X.com
X.com provides an instant and secure online payment service, integrated
with consumer and business financial services. With a customer base of more
than 3.3 million, X.com is the world's first and largest Web-based payment
network, and the #1 financial site on the Internet, according to PC Data
Online. X.com provides the preferred payment service for online auctions and
online community and group Web sites. X.com's service, free to consumers, can
be used from PCs or Web-enabled mobile phones. Founded in March 1999 by
Elon Musk, X.com is a privately held company headquartered in Palo Alto,
California. X.com was recently named one of the 50 Most Important Private
Companies in the World by Red Herring, one of the Top 25 New Companies by
Fortune Small Business, and a Forbes Favorite Website in the magazine's latest
"Best of the Web" issue.
SOURCE X.com
-0- 08/30/2000
/CONTACT: Vincent Sollitto of X.com Corporation, 650-251-1207, or
vince@x.com; or Meghan Butler of Applied Communications, 415-365-0222,
ext. 237, or mbutler@appliedcom.com, for X.com Corporation/
/Web site: x.com
CO: X.com; Credit Agricole
ST: California, France
IN: MLM FIN
SU: FNC
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