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.

Frost & Sullivan’s top research analysts conducted an analysis of the North American in-vehicle mobile commerce platform market and awarded P97 with the 2018 North American Technology Innovation Award. Every year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company with a developed product that not only has cutting-edge features and functionality, but also is obtaining high-speed acceptance in their market.

P97’s Award presented by Frost & Sullivan

Why P97 Was Frost & Sullivan’s #1 Choice

Frost & Sullivan’s industry analysts were thorough when analyzing P97 and their competitors. They conduct their analysis in a variety of regional and global markets. The analysts look for companies who demonstrate superior performance and outstanding achievements in; customer service, technological innovation, strategic product development, and leadership. Dorothy Amy, Senior Research Analyst at Frost & Sullivan, noted that P97 was second to none in the mobile commerce market.

“P97’s mobile commerce platform, PetroZone, is a cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering that helps consumers find, buy and save on fuel through their mobile phones or vehicle infotainment systems before reaching the gas station,” Amy said. “Through this groundbreaking model, oil companies gain direct access to consumers when they make a purchase decision.”

How Frost & Sullivan Believes P97 Will Lead the Future

P97 plans to continually innovate the mobile commerce market through unique and secure payment services for their consumers. Frost & Sullivan is sure that P97 will further strengthen its competitive position in the market.

“P97 distinguishes itself from the competition through its uniquely secure and scalable architecture that is designed to support payments across multiple apps, payment processors, wallets, POS, loyalty partners and other value chain participants,” Amy said. “P97 strictly adheres to data protection laws and prioritizes protecting consumers’ personally identifiable information (PII).” Amy said. “These exceptional benefits and business strategies ensure that P97’s technologies are scalable and future ready.”

Where to Find More On Frost & Sullivan

For more information on Frost & Sullivan, visit their website at https://ww2.frost.com or follow them on Twitter @Frost_Sullivan. To read the press release on P97’s award, click here.

More Info on P97’s Award from Frost & Sullivan

Download the full report on P97’s award here

Posted By

Aaron Mireles

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