2010 was an exciting year for the payments industry. A sector plagued with old piping and pantsuits enjoyed a big breathe of fresh air from entrepreneurs like Jack Dorsey and the founders of Blippy (even despite their big whoopsies). Here in Boston, 2010 was also an exciting year for innovations in the way consumers and businesses pay.
After wishing WePay the best in its move to Silicon Valley, other payment startups began strutting their stuff in the Bean. Heck, Near Field Communications (the tech on track to make mobile payments a reality) and PayPal founder Peter Thiel even made it to Boston in 2010. And 2011 promises to be even more exciting thanks to these 6 startups on track to put Boston on the map for the future of payments:
AisleBuyer
AisleBuyer is helping you avoid the lines. Their app allows you to scan barcodes and checkout items as you shop throughout a store, simply showing your receipt to an employee on the way out to confirm purchase. The app launched in August with headliner Gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker, was featured as a PepsiCo10 winner a month later, and most recently took $4M in part equity and part debt financing. The company’s current customer is Magic Beans here in Boston. Check out this video of the “Future Store” supermarket in Germany back in 2008 that has deployed similar technology. Twitter: @aislebuyer
Clovr Media
Clovr is working to make it easier — nay, actually enjoyable — for us to redeem offers. No more mail-in rebates, tricky gimmicks, or paper coupons. The company has created a platform that links banner, text, video, and mobile ads directly to your payment card, where the savings appear directly on your bank statement. For those of you who know anything about POS systems, one of the best parts about Clovr is that it requires no point of sale (POS) integration. (Clovr stands for Card Linked Offers with Virtual Redemption.) Check out their fun intro video to learn more. Twitter: @clovrmedia
Fig Card
Fig Card is a mobile payments solution that sets itself apart by circumventing many of the traditional mobile payments barriers by going directly through the web. Merchants require a (free) patented piece of software installed on a POS terminal/computer, and all you need is their app on your phone to be wallet-free. You can learn more about Fig Card from our interview with their original co-founders back in August. The company just hired Dave McLaughlin, who was formerly at Boston World Partnerships, and has purportedly been being courted by VCs in the area.
Paydiant
We broke the story that this stealth mobile payments company was prepping something disruptive. Why are we so interested in such a nascent company? Because their founders include some of Boston’s most well known Tech-Mafia. Their all-star team includes Kevin Laracey formerly of Sigma Partners, Joe Paratore formerly of Verisign and m-Qube, and Chris Gardner formerly of VeriSign/m-Qube and Extend Media. We look forward to following their moves in 2011.
peerTransfer
peerTransfer, founded out of MIT, is making it cheaper for you to send money internationally — as in at up to five times lower cost. How do they do it? When you send money to the UK, they take advantage of the fact that someone in the UK is sending money to the US. peerTransfer nets the transactions on their platform so effectively money doesn’t even leave the country. peerTransfer was a first runner-up in MIT’s $100k back in May, was one of 110 MassChallenge finalists this summer, and locked down $1.1M this October from Spark Capital, Project 11 and a group of Super Angels including Dave McClure. Twitter: @peertransfer
Perkstreet Financial
Perkstreet is taking the cost savings of being a virtual bank without physical locations to provide you free checking accounts and better debit card rewards, including cash-back. The company plans to expand their products into savings accounts later this year as well as a mobile app. Perkstreet launched in November 2009 after a round of capital from Highland Capital. Twitter: @perkstreet
Which of these companies do you think will put Boston on the map for payments first?
