PCM Vol.3 Issue 12
In this issue, we will explore the development of eCommerce, the upcoming trends in 2018 and the key challenges eCommerce merchants face trying to keep up with the fast-paced changes.
In this issue, we will explore the development of eCommerce, the upcoming trends in 2018 and the key challenges eCommerce merchants face trying to keep up with the fast-paced changes.
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PayKey sits in a really unique position in the market as we<br />
offer banks a solution to the challenges they are facing from<br />
both the world of social platforms and fintech companies.<br />
<strong>PCM</strong>: Tell us about PayKey. How did this idea come to be?<br />
Daniel: PayKey is a fintech startup that bridges the gap<br />
between banking and social, enabling banks to have their<br />
brands become a part of their customers’ social and<br />
messaging experience. PayKey enables banks to provide<br />
their customers with the ability to initiate and complete<br />
a range of financial services, including P2P payments,<br />
request payment, balance check, cardless withdrawal,<br />
and more, from within any mobile application. Offering<br />
a cross-platform banking button on the smartphone’s<br />
keyboard boosts the bank’s brand engagement while<br />
making the banking experience quick, contextual, and<br />
simple for users. The company originally started as a<br />
social blockchain app, however after gaining a greater<br />
understanding of the financial ecosystem and key<br />
challenges banks are facing in terms of engaging the<br />
millennial market and maintaining control of the<br />
customer relationship, we had a lightbulb moment<br />
about how we can solve this problem for financial<br />
institutions by utilizing one of the most valuable and<br />
most used pieces of real-estate on the smartphone<br />
- the keyboard. And that’s how PayKey was born.<br />
<strong>PCM</strong>: Why is it called PayKey?<br />
Daniel: PayKey’s product is a keyboard that<br />
looks and feels exactly like the smartphone’s<br />
default keyboard, however, it also has an<br />
additional banking button (customizable<br />
to the brand of each of our customers).<br />
Once tapped, the banking button<br />
opens a menu in place of the<br />
keyboard in the app that the user<br />
is already in, from which the user<br />
can access a range of financial<br />
services such as P2P payments<br />
and balance check. Payments<br />
through the keyboard were our first<br />
and still are our strongest use case.<br />
So, the name PayKey came from the<br />
logic of being able to pay through a<br />
key on your keyboard!<br />
<strong>PCM</strong>: Why is PayKey needed?<br />
Daniel: What we are increasingly seeing<br />
in the market today is something we like<br />
to call a ‘total convergence of platforms’.<br />
As consumers are no longer going to specific destinations<br />
to access services and companies, but are increasingly<br />
expecting those services and companies to be accessible<br />
to them from wherever they already are - be it Facebook,<br />
WeChat, or any other platform. Banks need to make their<br />
services channel agnostic and available from anywhere in<br />
order to not only meet the changing needs of consumers<br />
but to maintain control of the customer interface as new<br />
competition in the financial services industry heats up.<br />
This is exactly the problem PayKey solves - we transform<br />
the smartphone keyboard into a new channel for financial<br />
services, information, and communication, and by<br />
doing so, make a bank’s services accessible from any<br />
application in an entirely frictionless user experience.<br />
<strong>PCM</strong>: What makes PayKey different?<br />
Daniel: PayKey sits in a really unique position in<br />
the market as we offer banks a solution to the<br />
challenges they are facing from both the world of<br />
social platforms and fintech companies.<br />
Additionally, our product itself is different to others<br />
on the market as we offer a white label solution<br />
that integrates with the bank’s existing mobile<br />
application. In contrast, most of our competitors<br />
are focusing on building “private garden” solutions<br />
that work only within their application. Our<br />
solution is platform agnostic, white labelled<br />
and works within any application; such as<br />
messengers, email and social networks.<br />
<strong>PCM</strong>: What were some of your<br />
biggest challenges for launching<br />
this business?<br />
Daniel: Starting out as a tech<br />
startup trying to work with<br />
large financial institutions, one<br />
of the first challenges you face<br />
is earning legitimacy and trust.<br />
By successfully participating<br />
in various accelerators and<br />
competitions, we were able to<br />
build strong relationships and<br />
develop strategic partnerships<br />
with multinational financial institutions<br />
such as Mastercard and KPMG, which really<br />
helped to give us a stamp of approval and<br />
to open doors.<br />
Startup Spotlight<br />
19
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