Money app uses social media to verify users
01 April, 2015
category: Digital ID, Financial
The Payfriendz smartphone app launched last summer. Now the company is kicking off a marketing campaign focused on the UK student market. It has also teamed up with Veridu, using the company’s social identification platform to vet the identity of users by analyzing an individual’s social media footprint.
Payfriendz enables users to immediately transfer money between mobile devices for free. For a 1% fee, it also works across currencies. “Whether you’re collecting money for gig tickets or chatting to split the bill, you can clear off payments within a heartbeat straight from your mobile,” says Volker Breuer, co-founder & CEO of Payfriendz Ltd. “All you need to get started are friends to share money with. Your details are stored securely so you don’t have to worry about your money landing safely, and you can choose to withdraw your balance at anytime.”
Breuer met Veridu founder and CEO Rasmus Groth last year during a payment exhibition at the Dragon’s Den competition, and their partnership was born. “Veridu helps us to run certain background checks to support our risk management without breaking the smooth user flow,” Breuer says. “Instead of asking the same old questions your bank might ask — “Please provide us with a utility bill” — we’ll simply dig into your social graph — “Please connect with Facebook” — to mitigate risk. Veridu covers all the complicated statistical analysis. For our users, it’s simple and non-obtrusive.”
As users send money from one phone to another, their financial information is encrypted and stored on secure servers. Transfers are sent over a 256-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL). “It’s a very social approach to P2P payments,” Breuer says. “You already get an instant in-app chat, and we’ll release a bunch of features making Payfriendz even more social and fun to use.”
Payfriendz will likely expand to other markets. For now, the app is available to users over 18 years old with access to the UK Apple App and Google Play stores.
