A mobile payment app dreamt up in a Birmingham coffee shop has closed down after its owners admitted they had failed to build a profit-making business.

Droplet was launched in 2012 by Steffan Aquarone and Will Grant after they were inspired to create something which made paying for goods easier while sitting in Urban Coffee Company.

The firm had been eyeing significant growth over the past year, running two separate crowdfunding campaigns and aiming to sign up partners in 20 UK town and cities by the end of 2016.

A statement posted by Mr Aquarone on the Droplet website said: "We're extremely sad to announce that Droplet is being withdrawn.

"We started Droplet with the hope of making payment simpler, friendlier and mobile-first and more recently to allow merchants to offer better loyalty rewards to their customers.

"But sometimes things don't work out. We always knew it would take significant investment to give Droplet the scale it would need to succeed.

"In spite of being well supported by our investors and having tens of thousands of customers and hundreds of paying merchants, we never got to the scale to make Droplet viable as a profit-making business."

Mr Aquarone added that customers with remaining balances would be reimbursed in due course.

He is also seeking a buyer for the technology, support materials and knowledge beyond the product.