PASADENA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–PopID, a consumer identity authentication service, announced today that over 100 different restaurant and retail brands (both small business and chains) now accept its payment product, called PopPay, around college campuses throughout Southern California. PopID has approximately 70,000 registered users and has accurately authenticated faces over four million times.
The growth of the PopPay platform among college students follows the deployment of PopID’s entry system, called PopEntry, on student housing facilities. “Students first enroll for the PopID service in order to get into their housing facilities without needing a key card,” said Yale Goldberg, Chief Operating Officer of PopID. “Once those students learn that they can use the same service to purchase food and other goods without having to pay on the day of the purchase, they get addicted to PopPay as a more convenient, fun and financially flexible way to pay. Students that use the service repeatedly are floated larger amounts of capital, helping them to better manage their cash flow and avoid overdraft fees on their debit cards.” Based on the success of the PopID service in college communities throughout Southern California, PopID is planning to roll out to college campuses across the country over the next 18 months. Deployments of the PopEntry system in student housing will be followed by dense PopPay acceptance in surrounding businesses.
The rapid spread of PopID communities on college campuses was enabled by the closing of PopID’s $10M Series B financing earlier this Summer. Cali Group, The Wasserstrom Company, and Japan Computer Vision (a wholly owned subsidiary of SoftBank Corp.) invested in the round.
“The PopID system is incredibly easy to enroll in and makes face-based transactions for building entry and payment faster and more convenient. This convenience results in a very high frequency of use,” said Andrew Schwabecher, CEO of Japan Computer Vision Corp. “We are excited about the future and the opportunity to expand the system internationally.”
PopPay offers various benefits for both small businesses and enterprise chains. When integrated into self-ordering kiosks or offered on payment terminals connected to the POS, PopPay results in substantially lower payment processing fees for operators. Additionally, PopPay speeds up transactions, resulting in higher throughput and has been shown to increase loyalty usage. Finally, PopPay provides new ways for brands to interact with consumers. For the first time, marketing teams can use payment as an interactive, branded experience that drives consumer engagement.
About PopID
PopID provides a trusted and secure platform that enables businesses to give their customers and employees the option of authenticating their identity through consumer initiated facial recognition. The service is currently being used for entry into buildings and events (PopEntry) and payments (PopPay).
