Chirpify Grabs $1.3 Million to Bring Digital Payments to Twitter

There are a ton of companies trying to define commerce on Facebook, but here’s one company that’s targeting Twitter.

Chirpify is announcing today that it has raised $1.3 million in capital to build a payment platform on top of the popular microblogging service.

Investors in the round include Voyager Capital of Seattle and other angels, including Seattle’s Geoff Entress, BuddyTV CEO Andy Liu, former Facebook executive Rudy Gadre, HootSuite CEO Ryan Holmes and TiE Oregon Angels.

In addition to announcing the funding, the Portland, Ore., company said it is rolling out a payment platform specifically for digital content, where musicians can sell songs and concert tickets on Twitter.

“Twitter is a tremendous platform for brands, retailers, politicians, musicians and others to engage fans, yet with more than 140 million users there’s still no way to directly exchange goods and currency,” said Ryan Holmes, who invested in the round.

Here’s how Chirpify’s new digital content service will work:

Artists upload content to their to Chirpify dashboard, and then tweet out a message. Consumers then use Chirpify to link their PayPal account to their Twitter account. To buy a song, users would only have to reply to a tweet, saying that they are interested.

Chirpify then sends a message back with a link to the download.

The experience seems a little clunky because of the additional steps a consumer would have to take to link their PayPal account to the Twitter service. But if merchants provide enough compelling content for sale, it’s possible that consumers will adopt it.

The platform works similarly for other merchants and nonprofits, where messages are sent back and forth between the merchant and the consumer. Chirpify is free, and charges a 4 percent commission rate on each sale.

The company was founded by Chirpify CEO Chris Teso last year. Before Chirpify, Teso founded theGOOD, and has been a creative director at several advertising agencies.