Seed round enables Protean Payment to hire more staff

Protean Payment is starting to make a little noise in Ann Arbor's entrepreneurial ecosystem, attracting some venture capital investment and hiring several people.

The tech-payment startup has grown its staff to 10 employees. It has hired seven of those people over the last year. It is also looking to hire another five people and bring on some summer interns.

"We have been ramping up our engineering team," says Nick Bognar, communications manager for Protean Payment. "We have also brought on some operations personnel and a human resources person."

Protean Payment is developing a skeleton key for the wallet. The technology, which it has named "Echo," combines all of the user's credit, debit, loyalty and ID cards into the Echo card. Echo comes equipped with a tiny computer that syncs with the user's mobile phone. The accompanying mobile app allows the user to convert Echo into the card of his or her choice, allowing them to swipe it as they would their normal credit card. The 2-year-old startup, which calls Kerrytown home, hopes to launch the technology in 2014.

"They will see some stuff come out later this year," Bognar says. "I can't say exactly when that will be."

Bognar also confirms that Protean Payment has landed some seed capital that is paying for the build out of the startup. He declines to say how much has been raised. Ann Arbor-based Resonant Venture Partners and Chicago-based Hyde Park Venture Partners both claim Protean Payment as a portfolio company.

Source: Nick Bognar, communications manager for Protean Payment
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.