Prairie Cloudware raises $1.65 mln

Prairie Cloudware, which focuses on solutions that allow bank and credit union customers to make mobile payments, completed a $1.65 million capital raise. Founders Treetop Ventures and Croghan Investments led the round in partnership with Nebraska Global, Nelnet, Tetrad Corporation and other local angel investors.

Press Release

Prairie Cloudware has recently completed a $1.65 million capital raise. The company is an Omaha-based early stage startup focused on building solutions that allow bank and credit union customers to make mobile payments in a safe and convenient manner.

“With the support of our investors, we have begun building our team and our prototype as we tap into the rich payment and software development expertise available in Omaha, Lincoln and the surrounding areas.”

Founders Treetop Ventures and Croghan Investments, both with deep roots in the payments industry, led the round in partnership with Nebraska Global, Nelnet, Tetrad Corporation and other local angel investors. The capital raised in this round will be used for research and development as well as prototyping key components in the Prairie Cloudware solution set.

“Our goal is to build a world class company on the Silicon Prairie that will play a major role in enabling financial institutions to support the customer’s desire to safely use mobile devices to purchase goods and services,” states Kevin Kammer, CEO of Prairie Cloudware. “With the support of our investors, we have begun building our team and our prototype as we tap into the rich payment and software development expertise available in Omaha, Lincoln and the surrounding areas.”

“Gartner predicts that by 2017 the mobile payments market will be worth $721 billion and feature 450 million users worldwide,” continues Kammer. “The investment community in the United States sees that potential. In 2012, more than a billion dollars of venture capital was invested in mobile payments related technology companies. Prairie Cloudware, unlike many of these organizations, is focused solely on building mobile payment solutions for banks and credit unions.”

Patrick Smith, co-founder and COO of Nebraska Global adds, “Our commitment is to facilitate the growth and development of early stage Nebraska technology companies with the potential to deliver innovative solutions to the marketplace. Prairie Cloudware is one of those companies. Mobile devices will be the preferred option for the purchase of goods and services in the future. We believe financial institutions that wish to protect their payment franchise will look to companies like Prairie Cloudware to provide them with solutions that do just that.”

About Nebraska Global

Nebraska Global’s mission is to establish a globally competitive, vibrant, and impactful high tech environment creating sustainable long term economic development in the State of Nebraska via the creation of multiple for-profit companies.

About Nelnet

Nelnet (NYSE: NNI) provides innovative educational services in loan servicing, payment processing, education planning and asset management. These products and services help students and families plan, prepare and pay for their education, while making administrative and financial processes more efficient for schools and financial institutions. For more information, visit Nelnet.com.

About Tetrad Corporation

Tetrad Corporation is owned by a private family trust and invests in a variety of long-term business opportunities.

About Treetop Ventures

Treetop Ventures provides comprehensive, integrated financial and legal support across the full spectrum of family wealth and small/startup business needs. Treetop has investments in a number of Omaha-based companies including Prairie Cloudware, Lodo Software, FTNI and USMPS.

About Croghan Investments

Croghan Investments LLC is owned and operated by Ray Croghan, a serial investor in technology companies. Croghan typically invests in the seed round of startup companies with funding ranging from $250,000 to several million dollars.

About Prairie Cloudware

Prairie Cloudware’s mission is to provide financial institutions with the ability to meet their customers’ need for choice, convenience and security while transacting with their mobile devices on-line or at the point-of-sale. If you’d like to play a part in defining the future of mobile payments, contact Michael Carter at 402.905.9930.