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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.

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.

Gulf Oil and Discover Financial Services launched a summer savings campaign geared to reward consumers for downloading the new Gulf Pay app and linking their Discover card as the preferred payment method. 

By downloading the free Gulf Pay app and linking a Discover card within the wallet, users will automatically start saving 15 cents off on each gallon of gasoline (up to 20 gallons per visit for a total of 18 visits) when utilizing their Discover card for payment at participating stations throughout New England and New York. The campaign will provide users with exclusive savings starting July 13th and running through October 15th.

Gulf Pay, built on the PetroZone platform, offers a convenient and seamless shopping experience by allowing users to securely pay at the pump with their mobile phones while utilizing token encrypted data. Users can also use the app to locate the closest Gulf station, access live pricing and reliable directions, and view station offerings.

“By teaming up with Discover this summer, we can provide increased security and exclusive savings to an already loyal and growing group of existing cardholders with Gulf Pay,” Marg McDonnell, senior director of credit card operations at Gulf Oil said. “This campaign allows us to incentivize more motorists to choose Gulf and Discover and ultimately drives more traffic into our stations.”

The program will be supported by advertising from both Gulf and Discover. The support will come from promotional materials at participating stations, digital and radio advertisements in the New England market, and targeted email and social messaging.

“Discover is always looking for new and innovative ways to give our card members the best possible experience,” Andrew Hopkins, vice president of Portfolio Marketing at Discover said. “We want to encourage new and existing Discover card members to add their Discover card to Gulf Pay and take advantage of this generous offer.”

The Gulf Pay app launched in both the Apple App Store and Google Play stores in June and is currently accepted at participating Gulf retail fuel locations throughout select New England and New York markets. To learn more and start saving, visit www.discovergulfpay.com.

©2024 P97 Networks, LLC.  P97 and PetroZone are registered service marks and Fueling Mobile Commerce, P97 Payments One, P97 Mobile Commerce One, and P97 Fleet 360 are service marks of P97 Networks, LLC.