Start-up Clinkle has attracted a crowd of the highest profile venture capitalists with a mobile payment system for students and the merchants who target them.

Backers including Peter Thiel, Marc Andressen and Jim Breyer of Accel Partners have stumped up $25 million, a significant amount for a seed round.

Clinkle will use the funds to introduce its m-payments service over the next year to student campuses.

The firm was founded by Lucas Duplan (pictured), who is only 22 years old. The combination of his age, the student connection and Clinkle’s starry backers has drawn comparison with Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook.

Clinkle uses high-frequency sound to transfer payments data between users’ smartphones and merchants’ PCs, tablets and smartphones. This approach should reduce upfront investment in infrastructure.

However, there is some scepticism about the newcomer’s ability to shake up the established order in the payments industry.