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.

PEACHTREE CORNERS, Ga – May 3, 2018 –FLEETCOR Technologies, Inc.(NYSE:FLT), a leading global provider of commercial payment solutions, announced today it has made a strategic minority investment in P97 Networks, Inc., a leader of cloud-based mobile commerce and behavioral marketing solutions. P97 is an innovator in the petroleum industry, and its solution enables the acceptance of mobile payments at the pump and in stores by utilizing existing POS and cash register systems without requiring retrofitting.

In addition to the investment, FLEETCOR has signed a commercial agreement to use P97’s technology for FLEETCOR’s U.S. fuel card programs. The partnership is intended to drive the adoption of mobile payments among FLEETCOR’s existing customers, cardholders and oil company partners through delivery of a modern, robust, app-based customer experience. Together the companies will deploy mobile payment applications, as well as explore the use of existing P97 functionality such as authorization of in-store purchases and delivery of personalized offers directly to drivers through an app.

“We believe this investment and strategic partnership is an exciting way to ramp up mobile usage in our fuel card category and secure our place as a leader in the mobile fuel card payment space,” said Ron Clarke, Chief Executive Officer, FLEETCOR. “We look forward to working closely with P97 to further our common goal of driving payments innovation within the petroleum industry.”

“We are thrilled to have FLEETCOR on board as a strategic partner as we continue our charter to advance mobile commerce for convenience store operators, marketers, and oil companies,” said P97 Founder and CEO Don Frieden. “We look forward to collaborating with the FLEETCOR team to provide new mobile experiences for their customers and drivers, while exploring the transformative potential of mobile payments across the petroleum industry.”

About FLEETCOR

FLEETCOR Technologies (NYSE: FLT) is a leading global provider of commercial payment solutions. The Company helps businesses of all sizes better control, simplify and secure payment of their fuel, toll, lodging and general payables. With its proprietary payment networks, FLEETCOR provides affiliated merchants with incremental sales and loyalty. FLEETCOR serves businesses, partners and merchants in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Australasia. For more information, please visit https://www.fleetcor.com/.

About P97

P97 Networks provides secure cloud based mobile commerce and digital marketing solutions for the convenienceretail 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'