According to TechCrunch, "Venture capital investment in payment technologies hit a five-year high in committed capital in the first quarter of 2014". In addition, as competition heats up for consumer and business applications, it is becoming more and more crucial for startups to create innovative revenue models, along with new ways to monetize users.
The Founder Institute, in conjunction with the PayPal Startup Blueprint Program, wants to support entrepreneurs who have innovative ideas on monetization. As a result, we recently announced the "Startup Blueprint Scholarship" Program, which gives aspiring entrepreneurs with new ideas for accepting payments the opportunity to attend the Founder Institute program for free in select markets.
There are many companies innovating in the space right now, so let's take a moment to acknowledge those pushing the limits of how the world pays and transfers money.
NFC’s in Android and Iphones
As the Apple Iphone 6 is releasing it will now integrate Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. Many Android phones have already integrated this technology within the past few years, but Apple integrating it may indicate that it is time for the technology to be widely adopted, especially in the accepting and transferring payments sector. What NFC payments tech will allow you to do with your phone is simply touch, or put in close proximity of a scanner to make a payment. This technology is aiming to dethrone the process of swiping your card and getting a paper receipt. Many questions still need to be answered with this method though, such as what happens when your phone’s battery is dead? What if you lose your phone or it gets stolen? How secure is it? Nevertheless, there is still a push to adopt this technology. Until we can widely adopt one payment technology we are getting more and more different options every day as companies and startups continue to innovate.
Coin - The card that is all of your cards in one
As the world is advancing from payment methods that we have been using for decades, many markets are having trouble making the jump to the next step in our available technology. Coin is there to fill the void of the in between ground and perhaps beyond. It combines the ease of use of having all of your payment methods in one place, but still gives you a tangible, sleek looking, secure card that has your information. Plus you can use it at existing cash registers, and card swiping machines so merchants don’t have to get new equipment to accept payments.
Biyo - All of your payment options available by scanning your palm.
Of other companies that are willing to make the painful wait for the market to adopt more advanced tech, Biyo is one that doesn’t require to you even have your phone with you to make a payment. As a matter of fact you don’t even have to touch anything. Just scan your palm and go on about your business. No receipt, no nothing. Just scan and keep walking. Your receipt will be accessible digitally in Biyo’s many tools that you can access to make your payment experience easier.
Stripe - Made to help you implement payment processing for your business.
Approaching things from the opposite side of things, stripe makes it as simple as possible for businesses and developers to integrate payments into their websites and apps. One of it’s best features being; users don’t have to be directed off of your site to pay. Stripe allows to you have a simple, branded and user friendly payment form on your site. Created for developers it is one of the simplest things to integrate and speed up the process of being able to easily accept payments from web based users.
Ribbon - Simple peer to peer payments
When many people think of payment processing, they think of paying money to merchants. But what is often overlooked is paying between your personal relationships. As less and less people are carrying cash, the ways that companies are creating peer to peer payment options is in good time. For instances such as splitting the tab at dinner, paying back borrowed money, or everyone chipping in to buy a large christmas gift for a loved one. Ribbon has created the perfect option. Prior to services like this, digital interactions like these were only possible between peers if they both had the same app. With ribbon, no apps are necessary, all you have to do is create a user ID and send the link to someone and you can get paid. No matter where you are.
Services and companies like these are on the forefront of thought leadership for the payments and monetization field. As they inspire us to accept payments and monetize in more unique ways, there is always a need for new individuals and companies to arise that can push the limits of how we all monetize and accept payments. This is why Founder Institute has partnered with Paypal to inspire and help create new companies in this sector. Read about our partnership here.
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