ALTPAY, a Hollywood-based mobile payment startup that released its patent-pending technology six months before Apple Pay launched a similar system, announced this week that it has received a $1 million equity investment from two family office investors.
“ALTPAY is one of two first-to-market companies that are already doing business, have clients and revenue. Successfully up and running since March in the South Florida area, our mobile payment service is secure and private, saves merchants money and helps them to retain customers making every day purchases,” said Victor Cook, managing partner of ALTPAY, in a statement.
ALTPAY markets its mobile payment service in the United States to regional and mid-market retailers, including supermarkets, grocers, pharmacies and convenience stores. It will launch in Latin America in the first quarter of 2015, the company said.
One of ALTPAY’s target markets is retail customers without bank accounts. A recent FDIC study shows that one in 13 households in the United States, representing 9.6 million households, were unbanked in 2013. The same study shows another 20 percent of households, or nearly 25 million, with a bank account used financial services outside the banking system.
ALTPAY’s business model is based on a mobile payment software application integrated with the merchant’s point of sale and back office that uses a patent-pending one-time-use token tied to location and time. The technology, which replaces cash tender at the point of sale, does not require merchants to make hardware upgrades. It provides a direct channel of communication to the customer’s smartphone to deliver a targeted customer rewards program. The technology works with Android, Apple and Windows mobile smartphones.
ALTPAY has a team of six plus contractors in Hollywood; its investors are DRS Family Trust and Luis Ruggiero and family.
Posted Dec. 2, 2014