Tapaya secures €1m pre-seed to simplify card acceptance

Tapaya, a Prague-based startup, has raised €1 million ($1.17 million) in pre-seed funding to help turn everyday devices into payment terminals and simplify in-person acceptance for banks, FinTechs and software platforms.

The round was led by Passion Capital and co-led by Depo Ventures, with follow-on backing from BADideas.fund.

Founded in 2025, Tapaya is building software that allows businesses to embed card-present payments directly into their own applications, removing reliance on dedicated payment hardware. The platform is designed for use across smartphones, tablets, kiosks and enterprise devices, allowing merchants to accept payments through existing commercial hardware.

Laura Ďorďová, co-founder and CEO of Tapaya, said, “We want accepting payments to be as simple as turning on a light. For decades, it has meant relying on a piece of hardware, buying it, carrying it, connecting it, and reconciling it separately. Merchants are tired of that complexity. We’ve seen firsthand how much time and cost goes into enabling something as simple as that.”

The company said integrations are already underway in the Czech Republic, with partnerships being developed across Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltics.

The model targets a longstanding friction point in payments. Traditional in-store acceptance has depended on certified terminals, while software providers seeking to embed payments often face lengthy certification cycles, multiple counterparties and high compliance costs. Tapaya said its software layer abstracts processor integrations, certification and regulatory requirements into a single connection. That could reduce implementation timelines from months to days for partners seeking to launch in-person acceptance.

The company is also building around PCI MPoC standards, a newer framework that allows secure payment acceptance on commercial off-the-shelf devices. The shift has opened the door for SoftPOS models, where phones or tablets can function as payment terminals without specialised hardware.

Industry forecasts cited by the company estimate the global SoftPOS market reached €336 million ($393 million)in 2024 and could exceed €1.1 billion ($1.28 billion) by 2030. Fresh capital will be used to complete Tapaya’s PCI MPoC certification and further develop its in-house infrastructure, reducing reliance on third-party components.