Bill payment technology startup Papaya has joined an accelerator run by Silicon Valley Bank and MasterCard International. For the Burbank company, founded a year ago by Patrick Kann and his business partner, it’s good company. The company’s free app provides an easy way to pay bills with a mobile phone and a credit card – take a picture of the bill and, presto, it gets paid. Working with a bank and a credit card company makes sense. With Silicon Valley Bank, Papaya is working on compliance and security while MasterCard is handling monetization and technology-related issues, Kann said. “With payments you cannot make mistakes and safety is a first priority,” he explained. “Having them as partners is valuable.” The Papaya app is available through both the Apple and Google stores. Its technology is similar to that used in Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, the mobile payments services of those respective companies, Kann said. “It works with any bill that is credit card payable,” he added. Reetika Grewal, head of payment strategy and solutions at Silicon Valley Bank, said the bank and MasterCard choose startups that already have a product on the market and they like it if a company has participated in other accelerator programs. Grewal recommended Papaya join Commerce.Innovated because she liked how the company was making bill payment easier with image recognition technology. She also liked its focus on health care as its first market. “If you can get the doctors advocating to consumers to use the app, you can create a network effect and then can expand from there,” Grewal said. Papaya is financed by venture capital firms from both Silicon Valley and Los Angeles. Kann would not disclose how much investment the company has received. There is no agreement that Silicon Valley Bank or MasterCard will take an equity stake in the company, although the bank does have the opportunity to invest in its next round of funding, Kann and Grewal both said. Silicon Valley Bank has 13 branches, including one in Sherman Oaks. – Mark R. Madler