99Bill Corporation, reportedly the first company in China offering an e-mail and mobile phone-based online payment platform, announced that it has raised an undisclosed Series A round of venture funding led by Doll Capital Management (DCM) and Peninsula Capital.

99Bill intends to utilize this undisclosed sum of money to further develop its technology platform, as well as increase the adoption of its payment platform among partners and Internet users in China.

The company also announced that David Chao, co-founder and managing general partner of DCM and Greg Penner, the managing member of Peninsula Capital have joined its board of directors.

Launched in China in January 2005, 99Bill has created a fast, secure and convenient online and wireless payment platform for e-commerce operators, Internet and wireless service providers and individual users in China. 99Bill has established direct debit card and credit cards processing capacity with leading domestic banks in China, enabling any online user and business to receive debit and credit payments covering over 2.7 billion international and domestic-issued bank cards. Currently the company has approximately 400,000 registered users.

The total transaction volume of Internet products and services, as well as wireless value-added services in China, reached US$2.8 billion in 2004. However, most of these transactions were conducted through legacy and high-cost payment means, such as C.O.D, postal wire, pre-paid cards and bill collection services by mobile operators. Now on the 99Bill platform, anyone or any business with a verified e-mail address or a mobile number can accept debit card and credit card payment in real time and send and receive payments easily, securely and promptly without exposing the recipient's personal information such as bank account, name and address.