Minno Rebrands as BuySimple, Raises $700k Seed Round

Two weeks ago, I highlighted Minno's integration with SoundCloud for micropayments. The new service, founded by a pair of ex-Googlers, is hoping to tap into the growing market for in-app payments and premium social games and solve the complexity presented by today's solutions.

This morning, the company is announcing a not so micro boost to their chances with the closure of a $700,000 seed round, including contribution from Farhad Mohit, the founder of Shopzilla, Jack Abraham, founder of Milo, and GRP partners. In parallel, the company is also changing its name to BuySimple and setting up shop at http://www.buysimple.com.

The name change is more than cosmetic, helping the company evade a cybersquatter who thought Minno.com was worth exchanging high five figures for, which would certainly have put a dent into the seed round. It also captures the hope that Noah Ready-Campbell and Calvin Young have in making the long-discussed but rarely done well action of micropayments a simple one.

BuySimple Integrated on Hacker Monthly

Why will BuySimple be easy where other offerings have failed? In part, users don't need to create new accounts to use the service. They can tap into their existing Facebook accounts today, and imminent support for OpenID providers is promised. Merchants like SoundCloud and others are seeing the opportunity and already signing up. Early partners also include Hacker Monthly and FutureMe, who have posted buttons on their sites to enable users to donate using BuySimple or purchase digital editions of their magazine, right alongside the ubiquitous PayPal buttons.

BuySimple on FutureMe

Unlike PayPal, who is tightly integrated with parent company eBay for auctions and all other sorts of online purchasing, BuySimple is focused on micropayments and making the process easy. During a beta period, the company promises that qualifying partners can tap into the product free. New users get two dollars credit on initial use.

BuySimple is not affiliated with BankSimple, the new banking startup founded by former Twitter engineer Alex Payne.

Minno and SoundCloud Debut SoundRain for Music Payments

With Apple and Google doing battle for developers' hearts on in-app payments, the world of micropayments on the Web remains open for conquest, with startups vying for an opportunity to take on PayPal and Google Checkout and enable content owners to sell anything they like - from articles to documents, videos, music and photos. Last month, I highlighted Gumroad. Meanwhile, in January, an entrant called Minno, founded by a pair of former Googlers, emerged to become "spare change for the Web". Today, they announce a partnership with SoundCloud, the popular sound creatiion and sharing service, to deliver what htey call SoundRain.

SoundRain (at http://soundra.in/) empowers musicians who are already making their tracks listenable via the Web on SoundCloud to monetize, with Minno on the back-end, simply by adding embed code to their site, which adds a purchasing option to the standard SoundCloud player. In the introductory video explaining SoundRain, Minno cofounder Noah Ready-Campbell called his service "a new way to buy little stuff on the Web".

Users who want to purchase the song don't need to create a separate account with Minno. They just have to click the "buy" button next to the SoundCloud song, log in to Facebook, and the account is created. As the service is new, and looking for more users, Minno starter accounts come with $2 of credit. good for two songs on SoundRain.

Minno itself launched on TechCrunch and other blogs at the end of March as a small and simple electronic wallet. The company came up with SoundRain just over a week ago at a Music Hack Day in San Francisco, when the team integrated with SoundCloud's API.

For those artists too small or too independent for major labels, or others tired of aggressive revenue sharing from large music services, selling directly to the consumer makes a lot of sense. With SoundCloud gaining momentum and Minno looking incredibly easy to use, there's no reason you wouldn't see buy buttons popping everywhere you see SoundCloud today. And with the Web still struggling to find simple ways for premium content to live, maybe Minno is that answer. Even we dumb bloggers who give content away for free all day have got to find a good way to make a few cents on the side.