Supercharging smartphone payment app with cryptocurrency rewards
Glance Pay allows customers to pay for purchases like drinks and meals with a smartphone app. Launched by the Glance Technologies team that includes co-founders Desmond Griffin, Angela Griffin and Penny Green (pictured above left), this convenient payment platform promises more options and rewards in the future. LEFT Supplied; right, istockphoto.com
The mobile payment space is becoming increasingly crowded, but leaders are emerging, especially here in Canada, recently recognized by Forex as the world’s most cashless country.
“One of the innovations we recently announced is the Glance Pay Merchant app,” says Penny Green, president and COO of Glance Technologies. “Once launched, it will allow merchants to download and start accepting payments within minutes, with no custom hardware required.” She explains that once both buyer and seller have the app on their smartphone, all a seller needs to do is acquire the buyer’s phone number, precluding the need for the buyer to share their credit card details. Glance Pay then sends the customer a notification asking if they’d like to pay, and when they do, they also collect rewards, says Ms. Green, adding that although Glance Pay has primarily been adopted by the restaurant industry, it could be used in a variety of financial transactions. “Another future innovation would allow any two individuals with the app to send and receive money,” she says, ultimately giving it the ability to compete with Alipay, the mobile payment processing service developed by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.
Glance Pay was dreamed up by Vancouver entrepreneur and company CEO Desmond Griffin, whose track record includes PayByPhone, a mobile payment system that allows drivers to pay for parking with their smartphones from any location. Griffin sold that company in 2012 for $45-million to a U.K.-based firm that eventually sold it to Volkswagen Financial Services.
Although Glance Pay offers a high degree of convenience, it is being “supercharged” by the addition of a rewards-based cryptocurrency, says Ms. Green. Rewards will come in the form of a cryptocurrency currently under development that could be used in a variety of ways, including spending it on other items, converting it into hard cash or retaining it as an investment. “It is important to the Glance team that we continue to innovate and improve the experience for our customers,” said Ms. Green.
To develop this cryptocurrency and determine how it can be integrated into its platform, Glance Technologies has acquired what Ms. Green says is a star-studded cast of leaders in fintech, including blockchain “influencer” Dinis Guarda, Alexander Perkins, Spiros Margaris and Netcoins founders Michael and Dominic Vogel.
“I think there’s tremendous appetite on the part of the investing public to get in early and own a piece of a company that is doing all these exciting things. Too often, innovative technology companies are privately held, which doesn’t allow the average person to invest.”
But that’s only the beginning of the Glance Pay dream, adds Ms. Green. The goal is to build a cryptocurrency directly into the Glance Pay app and potentially finance it through an ICO, which is similar to a security offering except that in this case it is used to raise money for nascent cryptocurrencies. “Our team has been involved in hundreds of corporate finance and going-public transactions,” says Ms. Green. “We have tremendous expertise in accounting, law, corporate finance and investor relations, so this is well within our wheelhouse.”
Glance Technologies launched in 2016 with a market capitalization of $12-million and sold for fifteen cents a share. By mid-November of 2017, it had a market capitalization of $160-million and was trading at $1.37. “I think there’s tremendous appetite on the part of the investing public to get in early and own a piece of a company that is doing all these exciting things,” says Ms. Green.
“Too often, innovative technology companies are privately held, which doesn’t allow the average person to invest.” Glance Technologies Inc. stock is traded on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol “GET.”
Anti-fraud technology
When it comes to adopting mobile payment methods, fear of fraud ranks high on the list of concerns for consumers. However, since the launch of its anti-fraud technology at the beginning of 2017, Glance Pay has experienced “zero fraud across all its live locations,” says company president and COO Penny Green. That level of performance was made possible by the integration into the Glance platform of proprietary anti-fraud technology developed by company CEO Desmond Griffin. That same technology is also being used in the development of the company’s cryptocurrency and will be available for licensing to other cryptocurrency developers as well. “We are thrilled about the performance of our anti-fraud technology and are excited to apply it to the world of cryptocurrency, where we believe there is a large need,” says Mr. Griffin. “Reducing fraud surrounding cryptocurrency conversions can help accelerate both their growth and acceptance.”
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