dotBank

www.dotbank.com

Dotbank was purchased by Yahoo! on March 23 and will be relaunched later this year as Yahoo PayDirect. DotBank, despite launching on Dec. 7, just three weeks after PayPal, had attracted virtually no following on eBay despite a $5 new account bonus (see table, p 3); an indicator of how entrenched X.com/PayPal has already become.

DotBank.com

www.dotbank.com

We spent the better part of an hour discussing person-to-person payments with DotBank founder Robert Simon; it was interesting, but looking back on our notes, it’s clear he isn’t saying much about where his company is heading. Here is what we know:

•  Founded by Robert Simon who has a long history of starting companies.
•  Investors include: Sierra Ventures, Prism Venture Partners, and Interactive Minds.
•  A management team that includes a former
  Visa executive.
•  Looking at enabling payments from any device to any person using any device.
•  Looking at facilitating payments for auctions, gifts, classifieds, communities (aka portals), and ad hoc groups (e.g., let’s all pitch in $20 an office party), among others
•  Interested in related businesses such as micropayments and escrow services.
•  Talking to three financial institutions; interested in working others, especially top five.

This may not be much to go on, but based on what we’ve heard so far, and with the reputations of the venture investors, we think its worth a call and/or visit to Mr. Simon’s South San Francisco office. They sound like a serious player, but we’ll withhold judgement until we learn more about their operation. (If anyone has any information on dotbank.com or other new P2P companies, beam us at tips@obr.net

Contact:

Robert Simon, CEO

395 Oyster Point Blvd., Suite 130

South San Francisco, CA 94080

Phone (650) 624-0960

Fax: (650) 624-0970

Info@dotbank.com