Social payments company Plynk looks set to appoint liquidators to wind-up its operations just a year after a €25 million funding round, The Irish Times reported.

Citing a notification placed in the Irish Daily Mail over the weekend, the newspaper said the company had scheduled a creditor meeting in late June to approve the appointment of a liquidator.

Almost exactly a year ago Plynk CEO Charles Dowd (pictured) talked-up ambitious Europe-wide growth plans fuelled by the proceeds of a €25 million funding round. The company already operated its app-based payments platform in the Republic of Ireland, and had plans in place to move into Portugal and Spain at the time of investment.

Although not revealed in the funding statement, the cash was due to be paid by investors in stages and was partly reliant on the company hitting a number of targets it subsequently failed to achieve. It is unclear how much of the €25 million Plynk actually received.

In March 2018, Plynk apologised to customers for technical issues which forced the service offline for “a number of weeks”. Its launches in new markets also failed to materialise.

At the time of the disruption, the company said in a blog it had decided to “stop issuing accounts to new users, and temporarily disable certain functionalities in the app,” while assuring current subscribers all funds were safe.

Strong sector
Plynk provided so-called social payments, an increasingly popular sector where users can make small peer-to-peer payments over a mobile app which can also provide messaging between users. Aimed primarily at a young audience, it also allowed payments to be sent alongside emoji and other graphics.

The payment method is becoming increasingly popular around the world with similar services offered in China by Tencent; the US by Facebook, Snap and PayPal-owned Venmo; and a number of players competing in India.