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.

We think about daily journeys from the time we leave home in the morning and when we get back at the end of the day — whether it's tolling, parking, buying fuel, fast food restaurants, it's all a part of your daily journeys, and our goal is to make things a little bit simpler each day," Frieden says on the show.

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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.

Mobile commerce provider P97 Networks, Inc. announced that they will launch a program to enable mobile commerce with Chase Pay to pay at the pump and make in-store purchases with their smart phones.

Chase Pay is a simple, rewarding and secure payment service that enables merchants to accept consumer payments in-store, online and in app.

“With the combination of P97’s PetroZone® mobile commerce platform and Chase Pay we are thrilled to deliver more payment options to consumers at the pump,” said Donald Frieden, President and CEO of P97. “We are confident this combined solution will deliver an innovative mobile payment experience for the retail fuels market customer.”

Chase’s strategic partnership with P97 will allow Chase Pay to seamlessly integrate with retail site systems through P97’s PetroZone® Mobile Commerce Platform, including mobile payment capabilities, digital marketing, loyalty programs, and customer reward systems.

“Our technology partners, such as P97, are industry visionaries who will integrate Chase Pay into merchants’ overall payment acceptance strategy,” said Tom Nipper, executive director of Global Enterprise Solutions for Chase Commerce Solutions.

As the payments industry increasingly shifts from plastic to digital, Chase is leveraging new partnerships and technology to advance the consumer digital experience. With P97’s PetroZone® mobile commerce platform integrated to existing gas station infrastructure, Chase customers will be able to search for and navigate to the nearest gas station, make mobile payments at the pump and pay for merchandise with their mobile phones.

About P97

P97 Networks provides secure cloud based mobile commerce and digital 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 follow us on Twitter @p97networks or visit www.p97.com.

Posted By

Aaron Mireles

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