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Aaron Mireles

PODCAST HOUSTON FINTECH STARTUP TAPS INTO NEW TECH TO MODERNIZE 'DAILY JOURNEYS'

Before Don Frieden started his company, gas stations hadn’t innovated their payment technology
since 1997. He knew that needed to change.

Original Post | Innovationmap

Before Don Frieden started his company, gas stations hadn't innovated their payment technology since 1997. He knew that needed to change.

P97, founded in 2012, exists to use innovative technologies to simplify and energize daily journeys, Frieden explains on the Houston Innovators Podcast.

The fast-growing company — which has nearly 200 employees, most of whom work from Houston — has raised over $100 million in venture funding, according to Crunchbase, most recently closing a $40 million series C round earlier this year. This funding has supported P97 as its expanded its technology, even expanding outside of gas station payments and into other sectors, like consumer packaged goods, mobile app development, and alternative fuel sources.

Part of what P97 is focused on too is adapting new technologies, including biometrics, and applying them to the payments world. Voice-enabled payments is something in particular that Frieden is working on.

"One of the things we’re most excited about is voice enable payments through our partnership with Amazon's Alexa," he explains. "The landscape of payments at gas stations underwent this next revolution, and we're using cutting-edge speech recognition and artificial intelligence to allow drivers to pay for fuel just using their voice.

"It makes the process faster and more efficient, and is completely hands-free," he continues, explaining that biometrics are also safer compared to card transactions. "From this time I say, 'Alexa, buy gas,' six seconds later, the gas would be turned on and any loyalty rewards I have would be applied, all from the comfort of my car."

Frieden shares more about the future of P97, payments, and the energy industry as it intersects with P97 — including the future of alternative fuels — on the podcast. Listen to the interview below — or wherever you stream your podcasts — and subscribe for weekly episodes.

Verifone Systems, Inc. (NYSE: PAY) and P97 Networks, Inc. announced that P97’s PetroZone® Mobile Commerce and Digital Marketing Platform has been certified to integrate with Verifone’s cloud-based POS and site management software solutions—providing gas stations and convenience stores a combined, fully integrated solution for mobile payment acceptance in-store and at the pump.

P97’s PetroZone solution provides merchants with a 360° mobile marketing and commerce platform that supports mobile payments, digital offers and customer rewards as well as integration with loyalty hosts. With P97’s mobile payment processing application (MPPA), which is based on the Conexxus Mobile standard, gas stations and convenience stores can support “branded” mobile apps that enable consumers to take advantage of loyalty programs, discounts, and frequent shopper reward programs.

P97’s mobile payment applications provide consumers with an easy and fast onboarding process, including the registration of payment credentials and loyalty cards through an isolated and secure channel connected to their mobile wallet, also called a “token vault.” Integrating this tokenized mobile commerce platform with Verifone’s solutions enables P97 to provide the highest level of security and PCI compliance.

“Through our partnership with P97, our RubyCi and Commander Site Controller clients can automatically connect to P97’s PetroZone cloud services,” said Dan Yienger, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Petroleum for Verifone. “This means that our technology not only streamlines payments and operations management, but also offers gas stations and convenience stores a fast-track to introducing new mobile payment and digital marketing experiences for their customers.”

The fastest site controller in the petro space, Commander Site Controller is Verifone’s single site management software platform that supports all petroleum and card brands, providing increased speed in at-the-pump and in-store payment acceptance, fueling operations and back office control. Its cloud-based software management system—Commander Console—allows managers and owners to manage all aspects of their business, including payment, in-store and forecourt operations. RubyCi combines Commander Site Controller with Ruby2, Verifone’s latest POS workstation featuring a touch-screen console and multicore processor for fast, efficient order taking and payment processing—all through a centralized device that increases counter space for each work station.

“The ability to implement our mobile commerce platform through Verifone’s solutions is a testament to the value of Verifone’s open API,” said Donald Frieden, President and CEO at P97 and Vice-Chair of the Conexxus Mobile Working Group. “Now, gas stations and convenience stores using Verifone’s solutions can leverage the P97 platform to fast-track the introduction of new mobile payment and digital marketing experiences for their customers.”

Conexxus addresses technology standards to improve business processes, reduce costs and increase productivity for the convenience and fuel retailing industry. At the intersection of the convenience store industry and the payments industry, Conexxus provides a voice. Conexxus leads the U.S. delegation for the International Mobile Payments Specification (ISO 12812), which provides a general framework for mobile payments and processes, including tokenization to protect sensitive data.

“P97’s certification with Verifone is a perfect example of Conexxus members collaborating together to develop and deliver new mobile payment innovation based on industry standards for their customers,” said Grey Taylor, Executive Director of Conexxus. “Both of these companies have embraced the value of industry standards and have worked closely with Conexxus to ensure the Mobile Payments standard enables mobile commerce solutions that are easy to deploy.

About PetroZone

PetroZone®, created by P97 Networks, is a cloud based mobile commerce platform which connects consumers with retail fueling merchants and convenience stores across a broad partner ecosystem, including oil company payment networks, merchants, consumer packaged goods companies, automotive companies and banks. Consumers using their PetroZone enabled mobile phones and “connected cars” have better mobile shopping experiences, options for lower fuel prices and opt-in personalized digital offers for in-store purchases. PetroZone ecosystem partners can gain consumer loyalty through omni-channel marketing opportunities and “connected-consumer” experiences when enabling mobile payments and settlement, behavioral marketing and digital offers, and hosted-managed point-of-sale solutions when connected to PetroZone’s open integration framework.

About P97 Networks

P97 Networks provides secure cloud based mobile commerce and behavioral marketing solutions for the convenience retail and fuels marketing industry under the brand name PetroZone®. P97’s mCommerce solutions enhance the ability of convenience store operators, marketers, and oil companies to attract and retain customers by providing technology that securely connects millions of individual mobile phones and connected cars with identity and geo-location based software technology to create truly unique connected-consumer experiences. P97’s software personalizes the “find-buy-save” experience for every mobile consumer. For more information visit www.p97.com or follow us on Twitter @P97Networks.

About Verifone

Verifone is transforming everyday transactions into opportunities for connected commerce. We’re connecting more than 26 million payment devices to the cloud—merging the online and in-store shopping experience and creating the next generation of digital engagement between merchants and consumers. We are built on a 30-year history of uncompromised security. Our people are known as trusted experts that work with our clients and partners, helping to solve their most complex payments challenges. We have clients and partners in more than 150 countries, including the world’s best-known retail brands, financial institutions and payment providers. www.verifone.com

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