Yoyo, a London-based mobile payment and loyalty app already up and running at Imperial College in London, is rolling out at the University of Westminster and University of Greenwich – putting the combined mobile payment and loyalty app in front of more than 70,000 students, visitors and faculty members across London.
The app, which was released earlier this year, is already handling some 30,000 transactions per month. In addition to the University of Greenwich and University of Westminster, Yoyo plans to announce further partnerships with universities and high-street retailers over the coming months.
Yoyo has also announced today that it has raised US$5m in seed funding, one of Europe’s largest seed funding rounds. The investment was led by technology commercialisation and investment group, Imperial Innovations Plc, with co-investments from Firestartr, a new digital venture platform, and Telefonica Group.
Founded in 2013 by Alain Falys (Founder of OB10, ex Visa), Dave Nicholson (Founder of Zopa, ex Egg) and Michael Rolph (ex PayPal, Barclaycard and First Data), Yoyo aims to create a better customer experience using an app which simplifies and speeds up in-store transactions by combining payment and loyalty via one easy scan.
Users download Yoyo on the App Store or Google Play, and attach a funding method to top-up their account. Yoyo integrates into the retailer’s till system and uses a unique QR-code for each transaction, which is scanned at the point of sale using a scanner. Users collect loyalty points automatically in the app and can receive offers and promotions from their favourite retailers direct into their app. It removes the need for both cash and loyalty stamp cards.
For retailers, Yoyo provides a marketing platform that enables digital customer engagement in-store. The platform gives retailers a set of tools, which enable them to better target their customers with relevant rewards, offers and incentives.
Alain Falys, co-founder and CEO at Yoyo, explains: “Yoyo’s fast early traction demonstrates that mobile payment combined with loyalty means value for retailers and convenience over cash or cards for consumers. With the addition of Westminster and Greenwich universities we are now enabling over 70,000 users across London to pay fast and get rewarded with Yoyo on a daily basis.”
Earlier this year, Yoyo participated in Pitch @ Palace, an initiative run by The Duke Of York in support of early-stage entrepreneurship. The app collected two out of three awards, including ’Best Pitch’ and ‘Most Innovative Idea’.
