Freedompay
Private | |
Industry | Payments Platform as a Service |
Genre | Payments Gateway |
Founded | Philadelphia, 2000 |
Founder | Tom Durovsik, CEO |
Headquarters | Radnor, Pennsylvania, Radnor, USA |
Key people | Tom Durovsik, CEO; Christopher Kronenthal, CTO |
Products | FreedomPay Commerce Platform |
Website |
www |
FreedomPay is a white-label commerce platform for banks, retailers and healthcare providing secure, cloud-driven user experiences,[1] across the commerce ecosystem: in-store, online and mobile. The payments platform as a service enables value added solutions for global partners and is sold through resellers, VARs, OEMs, processors/ISOs, and POS solution providers.[2]
History
FreedomPay was founded in 2000 and is currently located in Radnor, Pennsylvania. In early 2000, FreedomPay launched mobile payment "proof of concepts" with enterprises such as McDonald's,[3] Bank of America[4] and Visa. Later in 2004, FreedomPay delivered a closed loop payment solution for stored value and voucher systems to the markets in the food service industry.[5]
In 2007, FreedomPay developed a gateway for credit card processing (FreeWay) that captures detailed transaction data. That data can be mined for real time intelligence from disparate systems allowing merchants insight into their sales. Using that data FreedomPay launched a cloud-based platform as a service (PaaS) and a first generation incentives platform. This platform gives merchants the ability to launch targeted incentives based on buying habits and delivers the ability to track the progress of incentives against live sales.
With the launch of the FreedomPay Commerce Platform in 2009, its customers can now deliver those incentives in real time to consumers’ mobile phones and enable mobile payments. All of this technology, is based on an open architecture and is protected by high-level security.[6]
In 2013, FreedomPay was selected by Microsoft as its commerce platform partner for the global banking and retail sectors.
In 2014, FreedomPay earned PCI Validation for its Point to Point Encryption solution (P2PE). FreedomPay was the first fully functional platform solution in North America to achieve PCI Validation, including support for NFC and EMV payments.
Founder
A marketing and new product development executive, Tom Durovsik has held leadership positions with some of the world’s most recognized consumer brands, followed by a string of highly successful start ups focused on emerging technologies, including the Internet, cloud computing and mobility. He has built a strong reputation in the business community as a focused leader, a strong hands-on operator and a successful entrepreneur.
As a product director for Pepsi Cola, Durovsik focused on marketing and new product development for Pepsi products.
Later, Durovsik served as president and minority equity partner at The Franklin Mint, a manufacturer and direct marketer of collectibles. Under his leadership, the company grew sales from $150 million to more than $1 billion annually, with more than 5,000 employees spanning the globe.
In 1995, Durovsik founded Intelihealth in partnership with US Healthcare and Johns Hopkins University. Intelihealth was the first company to provide personalized branded healthcare information to all forms of electronic media, including the then-new medium of the Internet. Aetna, Inc., the world’s largest insurer, acquired Intelihealth in 1999.
Products
FreedomPay Commerce Platform
The FreedomPay platform is a commerce solution including mobile payment capabilities, high-level security, incentive technologies, and business intelligence that integrate with live POS systems.
P2PE & Security
Point to Point Encryption protects customers’ private data and ensures merchants' compliance with PCI regulations through a hosted solution.[7] FreedomPay has a long history in secure electronic payments. All FreedomPay products are tested and certified to ensure the most secure transactions.[8] The FreedomPay Commerce Platform is the first fully functional PCI-Validated P2PE Solution in North America that includes EMV and NFC.[9]
Mobile Payments and Incentives
The mobile application connects consumers’ smart phones to the FreedomPay commerce platform at physical merchants. In addition to allowing mobile payments through the use of QR codes, the mobile app delivers targeted incentives, replaces loyalty cards, and provides access to electronic copies of receipts.[10]
Merchants utilizing the FreedomPay Commerce Platform have the ability to create offers and loyalty programs. These offers can target users based on a number of criteria, including purchase history as well as user-input information. Users within the merchant-chosen distance can see active incentives within the mobile application, and apply them to their bill at checkout.[11] The FreedomPay platform allows users to automatically accrue loyalty points, and view the loyalty-point progress within the app. Unlike traditional punch-cards, the merchant has the ability to create a more flexible loyalty program, awarding points for more specific circumstances such as low-calorie foods, dollars spent, specific item purchased, payment method or per transaction. Loyalty rewards are also more flexible. For example, a user could redeem points for a discounted meal, or accrue more points and redeem for a vacation day. Points can also be awarded by financial institutions.[12]
Business Intelligence
FreedomPay Business Intelligence is a piece of the Commerce Platform, and provides real-time analysis of business transactions for merchants utilizing the FreedomPay Commerce Platform. Merchants are able to view detailed business reports online and in real time, allowing perspective on their retail practices and effectiveness of individual incentives and programs.[13]
Stored Value
FreedomPay Stored Value is a cashless payment solution, providing corporate clients such as universities, hospitals, and corporate cafeterias with an option for stored value spending.[14] According to the US Treasury, a Stored Value proponent, the benefits of a program like this are the speed provided, flexibility in funding, POS integration, and data collection.[15]
FreedomPay Stored Value cards allow contactless payments and mobile payments at payment terminals, speeding up checkout processes.
Funding options include automated funding through bank account,credit/debit card, and payroll deduction, and manual funding using those as well as cash and check. Integration with most major POS systems keeps FreedomPay Stored Value system adoption costs at a minimum.
The online Portal for Stored Value allows FreedomPay clients to use that information for a number of purposes, from distributing basic monetary-value vouchers to rewards based on eating habits.[16]
Patents
FreedomPay has earned multiple patents for its Commerce Platform including:
- “System and method for validation of transaction data,” USPTO # 8,494,997
- “Dynamic and recursive transaction gateway system and method,” USPTO # 8,495,243
- "System and process for performing purchase transactions using tokens," USPTO # 8,751,391
- "System, method, and business method for settling micropayment transactions to a pre-paid instrument," USPTO # 8,666,896
- "Methods and systems using contactless card," USPTO # 8,630,952
Partnerships
FreedomPay joins together with a select group of skilled partners who provide FreedomPay customers with products that complement, interoperate with, and add value to FreedomPay applications.
FreedomPay maintains partnerships with enterprises including:
- Microsoft[17]
- MICROS[18]
- Ingenico
- PTC
- ScanSource
- Digital Dining
- First Data
- HID[19]
- Guckenheimer
- Compass Group[20]
- Sodexo[21]
- Global Payments
- NCR
- Aramark[22]
Funding
FreedomPay investors are global market leaders with expertise in mobility and financial services[23] including a keen focus on emerging payments and incentive and loyalty management, Core Capital Partners (Washington, D.C.) and BlueRun Ventures (California) as investment partners.[24]
References
- ↑ http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/B/A/2BA04E33-4D12-43E8-980C-72B61D05E982/Transforming_Payments_WP.PDF
- ↑ http://www.mobilepaymentstoday.com/article/223283/Microsoft-FreedomPay-bring-big-data-analytics-to-payments-platform
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑ Transaction Trends Article "Innovation Lab"
- ↑ http://www.paymentssource.com/news/microsoft-freedompay-collaborate-on-targeted-offers-3015907-1.html
- ↑
- ↑ Visa PCI DSS Global Registry
- ↑
- ↑ http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomgroenfeldt/2013/11/11/freedompay-captures-uses-the-information-in-transactions/
- ↑ Finance on Windows Article "Next-Generation Commerce"
- ↑ Microsoft Article "Can Big Data and Payments Drive Loyalty in Consumer Banking?"
- ↑ Microsoft Article "Payments is an Information Business"
- ↑ BizJournal.com Article "FreedomPay pushes cashless growth"
- ↑ http://www.fms.treas.gov/eaglecash/svcfacts.html
- ↑ http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/B/A/2BA04E33-4D12-43E8-980C-72B61D05E982/Transforming_Payments_WP.PDF
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑ http://www.hidglobal.mx/partners/freedompay
- ↑ http://www.foodservicecentral.com/doc/freedompay-combines-cashless-payments-and-loy-0001
- ↑ http://archive.is/hmRWz
- ↑ http://www.aramarkcafe.com/layouts/canary_2010/locationhome.aspx?locationid=3847&pageid=30&custompageid=8950&tmp=2014010603
- ↑ BlueRun Ventures
- ↑ http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/phillyinc/Boy_Scouts_to_use_FreedomPay_technology_at_Jamboree.html