About

Merchants: Card payments commissions cost European merchants c. €25bn per year increasing by 10% yoy on average as cash usage is rapidly decreasing. Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) causes 29% of authentication attempts to fail, leading to €90bn of potential lost sales. Fraud-based cost is huge, more than €1.5bn per year. Loyalty platforms are mainly run by banks and offered only to mid/large merchants. Merchant-run loyalty schemes are old-school, not digitalized and fragmented. Very limited abilities for direct marketing campaigns. Consumers: Poor user experience with plastics, complex banking apps and various mobile wallets in the physical world, entering card data online, saving card details in various sites, feeling of insecurity and loss of privacy, hassle of SCA. They get nothing back most times they pay unless they use a credit card (just 15% of payments). Hard to identify really useful offers and promos. High cost of P2P transactions, usually executed as remittances.

Solution & Product

Throo: an ecosystem where every payment is made without cards and is an opportunity for merchants to reward consumers. Merchants accept physical payments via their smartphone or a printed QR code. In e-commerce they display a QR code and/or button. They can reward consumers with cashback as a percentage of each payment amount. Cashback can be spent only at the merchant that gave it originally. They also use a web-based tool to manage payments, perform payouts and make refunds. Minimized payment cost (all card-related cost is removed, fraud is practically eliminated), no sales lost due to SCA, new sales because of increased consumer loyalty. Consumers use a mobile app that incorporates a digital wallet which they top-up with money from a bank. They use the wallet to pay physical and online merchants and to send funds to other consumers. They also manage payments, view cashbacks and are presented with offers and promotions. They enjoy superb digital experience and gain financial benefits

Innovation & Scalability

Throo presents a disruptive proposition as it introduces no-cash payments without cards, the prevailing electronic payment option today. Powered by open banking, Throo is presenting a world of advantages for consumers and merchants. From a boring interaction, every Throo payment becomes a happy moment as both the consumer and the merchant gain a series of benefits: For the merchant: Lowest cost ever - No setup - No subscription - No equipment - No consumables - No fraud - Very low commission Streamlined operations - Payouts in near-real-time - Advanced web-based administration tool - Turn-key solution Integrated marketing platform - Optimal loyalty as cashback can be used only at same merchant - Advertisement via extra visibility through the app, marketing material & content, offers and more - Direct marketing campaigns to reach out to customers with special offers - Attractiveness: provide innovative digital services to millennials and Gen-Z customers - Advanced analytics & reporting For the consumer: - Superb User Experience: convenient, speedy, enjoyable, fun to pay - Excellent onboarding: fast, easy and secure - Advanced administration: better spending management - Fast: much faster checkout, physical & e-commerce - P2P: instant & free Person-to-Person payments - Fun: new, modern and innovative service - Absolutely digital: no need for old-school plastics, PINs, terminals and paper receipts - Financial benefits: cashback reward with every payment

Traction & achievements

Customer research - Independent customer research by Truberries. Quantitative (200 Sellers & 400 Payers) and qualitative (in-depth interviews) - Detailed competition analysis by 3rd-party consultants Branding - Detailed brand identity design - Naming with multi-national user testing - Logos, app icons etc. - Brand language - 3D illustrations - Copywriting (EN & GR) Design UX & UI - User research & user journeys - Detailed wireframes Development - Consumer & merchant mobile apps - Merchant & Throo web-based admin tools - Consumer digital self-onboarding - C2B & P2P payments - APIs with Banking-as-a-Service platform Technology - Tech: .NET, C#, GraphQL, JS React & JS React Native Business Development - Interfaces with IT Vendors and Providers of physical retailers and e-shops - Presentations to several potential anchor retailers License - As-a-service from Railsr (to be granted until September 2022) Expected launch - October 2022

Team & Why Us

Throo aspires to become one of the main account-to-account payment providers in Europe as well as one of the most signficant loyalty marketplaces in Europe. After operating in Greece for a period of 18-24 months, we will expand our presence to the neghiboring countries starting from Romania. Based on this experience, we will create the international expansion blueprint and, with the proper fundraising, we will rapidly expand our presence in as many countries as possible. Given that the Throo product and value-added services are a unique proposition in the Greek payments market, there are really no significant barriers for growth in customers and revenues. The only potential barrier would be the future entry of a company with a similar value proposition. Until that moment, we feel confident that we will have gained a substantial market share while at the same time we will be ready to swiftly adjust our strategy, value proposition, pricing etc.

Funding Needs

3.7mn Euros for the first 18 months of operations, including the Bank of Lithuania Licensing cost