FinTech News
Play2Pay Raises $13 Million for Payment Gamification Platform
What if mobile phone customers could get a discount on their service by playing games and participating in other activities? That’s exactly what Play2Pay is making possible — and, now, the FinTech is bringing in money of its own, recently closing an eight-figure funding round.
Miami-based start-up Play2Pay has announced that it raised $13 million. The “oversubscribed” Series A was led by Telesoft Partners with Harbor Spring Capital and a slew of individual investors including former AT&T vice chairman Ralph de la Vega, former Reuters CEO Tom Glocer, Madison Dearborn Partners co-founder Jim Perry, and Virtusa founder Kris Canekeratn also participating. With the funds, Play2Pay intends on accelerating its product development while also adding talent to its team and increasing partner engagement
Play2Pay is a service that brings gamification to the payments sector. According to their site, mobile phone users can reduce select bills by completing such activities as playing games, watching videos, taking surveys, and other offers. In fact, the company states that these bill reductions average 30% and nearly 30% of customers earn enough through the platform each month to amount to free monthly service. Additionally, more than one-fifth of Play2Pay users engage with the platform on a daily basis. Currently, the service is available to more than 100 million mobile subscribers in the United States, United Kingdom, Mexico, Brazil, and Indonesia. In the U.S., the platform has been used to power such offerings as Cricket Wireless’s “Ad It Up” app.
As for what investors saw in Play2Pay that made them take an interest, Telesoft Partners founder Arjun Gupta explained, “Play2Pay is at the sweet spot of the intersection of mobile payments, monetization, and gaming. The Play2Pay product creates a triple whammy winning experience: a win for consumers, a win for brands and a win for service providers.” Meanwhile, sharing more of his company impressive stats, Play2Pay founder and CEO Brian Boroff stated, “Our revenue jumped by nearly 300% in the 12 months from June 2020 to June 2021 as a result of consumers seeking savings, brands seeking an affordable way to reach customers, and service providers seeking new ways to drive revenue. Not only did our partners see 25% of Play2Pay users generating revenue daily on the platform, we offered our brand and service provider partners a new level of data and analytics that allowed them to customize offerings and strengthen customer relationships.” Boroff added, “We are growing thoughtfully and are excited about the potential of Play2Pay’s platform for financial services and e-commerce, as well as utility, cable, and internet.”
While apps utilizing similar offers to Play2Pay do exist (such as Current Rewards and their Mode Phone), the startup’s model of partnering directly with brands to help customers reduce their service bills does seem like a winning formula. Not only is there already a built-in customer base but the backing of these service providers also brings legitimacy to a platform that might be met with skepticism otherwise. Thus, it’s easy to see why Play2Pay has scored a significant Series A — and while the FinTech is likely to find success as it continues to expand.
