The London based startup Yoyo has created an application with a connected payment system that allows students and professors to make acquisitions within their university campus via mobile phone. It has registered 30,000 transactions per month since its launch at the beginning of the year.
Observing the strategies that have been used to diffuse this system, an important precedent comes to mind: Facebook. Like Mark Zuckerberg, the founders of Yoyo – Michael Rolph,Alain Falys and Dave Nicholson – started within their university environment to create an active user base. The app was made available in 32 cafes on the Imperial College London campus. The first experiment involved 20,000 people and the trial was a success. The app is now on the verge of receiving 2.2 million pounds from a group of financiers that include the likes of ex-managers from Visa and PayPal.
How does it work? Along with payments, Yoyo offers services like marketing platforms for improved involvement by users thanks to loyalty, couponing, acquisition incentives, and targeted offers. The payment transaction occurs by scanning a bar code like the one in the image above.
Michael Rolph points out that there is a misconception that in the UK millions of other startups capable of offering the same services already exist. Thanks to sophisticatedgeolocation and profiling of the consumer and retailer, Yoyo makes it possible for all of the services to be relevant to both at the moment of a payment transaction. The result is that it saves time by reducing lines at check out and creates increased value with personalized services.
During the Pitch @ Palace event requested by the Duke of York to award entrepreneurial initiatives, Yoyo was mentioned among the startups with the most innovative ideas of the year in the UK. Future plans are to expand, not just to other universities, but also to other commercial areas in London.
