Dublin based startup Plynk has raised €725,000 in seed funding from Bank of Ireland’s Startup and Emerging Sectors Equity Fund, managed by Delta Partners. Additional funding was provided by Delta Partners, Enterprise Ireland, NDRC and a number of angel investors.

Co-founded in 2015 by Charles Dowd and Clive Foley, Plynk has created a money messaging app that enables phone users chat one-on-one and in groups and send / receive money instantly from within the chats. The Plynk team plans to add physical cards for users in near future.

The taxpayer is into Plynk for €200,000 after an Enterprise Ireland payment in July 2016.

The venture was developed at the Bank of Ireland WorkBench in Dublin over a period of 15 months, with the company receiving mentoring and advice from  members of the Bank of Ireland innovation, CD&I, customer products, cards and payments teams.

Plynk chief executive Charles Dowd commented: “The combination of social and payments is a really exciting space and, once we bring our consumer product to market, we have ambitious plans for our business over the coming years. Payments is a space which has really been focused on merchants and businesses. We are trying to refocus it on people, how they access their funds and move them back and forth in a user-friendly fashion.

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“The Bank of Ireland Workbench really prepared us for today. Over the past 15 months we’ve received fantastic mentoring from the team in Bank of Ireland, NDRC and Delta Partners.”

David Bowles of Delta Partners said: “We believe Plynk has a great future ahead. We are delighted to be leading the investment in such an innovative fintech company and are excited to see the product launch.”

Plynk’s strategic advisors are Sonia Flynn from Soundcloud and former Central Bank executive Peter Oakes.

Photo: Charles Dowd (right) and Clive Foley with Lesley Tully from Bank of Ireland