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Money Dashboard announces date of Scotland’s biggest FinTech crowdfund

Money Dashboard, the Scottish fintech firm, has announced today its crowdfund will launch privately to its users on 20th May 2019.

Users of the personal finance app will have exclusive access for 24 hours before the opportunity is made available to the wider public at 10am on Tuesday 21st.

This announcement comes after the appointment of former Revolut, Peter Higgins, as CFO and the establishment of a strategic partnership with price comparison site GoCompare to enrich data from hundreds of UK banks and financial institutions.

The money from crowdfunding will come to accelerate customer numbers growth, unlock new data markets and treble their Edinburgh-based team from 20 to 65 staff.

Money Dashboard CEO Steve Tigar said: “This raise comes at a pivotal time for Money Dashboard. Open Banking is starting to accelerate consumer adoption of digital money managers (DMMs) and we’re positioning ourselves to win the hearts and minds of millions of people. Bringing our users on the journey with us will be a key part in achieving this mission.”

In 2017 Money Dashboard raised capital with more than 1,000 of its users collectively investing £1.4 million.

Interested investors are invited to meet the team behind the app at exclusive events in Edinburgh, London and Online.

Introducing Sagecity IPS

SageCity’s Internal Payments System (IPS) is a financial infrastructure tool for enterprise. It allows for immutable tracking and management of a user’s assets and data but primarily focuses on financial balances.

The main benefit of this innovation is that by using sidechain technology on the SageCity network, enterprises can accurately distinguish users and their financial resources in a secure and low-cost manner. IPS works in conjunction with payment processors by tracking payments received into a user’s account and assigning them representative tokens for that payment.

With it, enterprises can:

  • Limit the involvement of payment processors;
  • Gather real-time analytics; and
  • Have a sidechain foundation that can be used to handle further processes in the future.

 

The Cryptocurrency Token

A token is deployed on the sidechain network and the tokens are held by the platform operator, ready for use. Tokens are divisible and can have their own value. Or, they be used to accurately represent a fiat currency, for example: £1 = 1 Token or £0.59 = 0.59 Token. Value can be enforced by the token operator as, in order for them to be circulating, they must have been paid for by a user. This allows an enterprise to maintain its own internal stablecoin. There are also opportunities to monetise elements of this solution for the enterprise.

 

Focusing on a Positive User Experience

On the intended platform, a user would proceed to the payment portal as expected. The user would input their card details, confirm, and approve the charge. That money is then facilitated by the payment processor and transferred from the user to the enterprise’s bank account. Once the transaction is successful, the platform operator issues a fiat equivalent in the token. This then sent to the user’s unique account and can then be used on the platform in their desired way.

When a user spends or sends those tokens, they choose their destination and hit a “Buy” or “Send” button. Once confirmation is received, tokens are sent to the desired destination.

In platforms in which redemption or “cashing out” happens, the tokens are sent to the platform operator and the equivalent in fiat is then sent from the enterprise bank account to the destination as requested by the user. The payment processor carries out this last step.

We believe that the blockchain revolution should be almost silent. Users should seamlessly carry out their usual activity and behaviours. They don’t need to know that they have adopted a form of cryptocurrency. Our goal with IPS was to make sure that the product doesn’t negatively impact the experience.

IPS has revenue benefits as an enterprise can allow users to have a “balance”. It can then introduce simple practices to get users to commit more in spending to the platform. Setting up a minimum deposit amount is an example of this.

 

What’s in It for Enterprise?

1. Operating Costs Reduction

SageCity’s IPS mechanism reduces the involvement that payment processors have over the handling of money. With one of our pilot companies, we calculated that we saved them around 80% in transaction fees.

2. Real-Time Analytics

By using a cryptocurrency token on a blockchain you automatically gain a standardised way to track and monitor all data circulating on the network. You can track user balances, exactly when, how much and to whom they are sending transactions. As a result, you can view and collate real-time reports.

3. Accurate and Secure Recordkeeping

Blockchain technology is immutable as all data is verified and encrypted when it gets added to a block. Sidechains also have an added layer of “backing up” with the main SageCity network. This means that it is near impossible for someone to manipulate balances or information and it eliminates key person risk.

4. No Downtime

As long as you have at least one node on the sidechain, the network will run 24/7/365 with little to no latency issues.

5. Scalable and Adaptable Infrastructure

While the IPS and SageCity blockchain technology is being used to manage financial balances, a blockchain can store any type of data. This means that we have extremely adaptable infrastructure. In the future, it can be used to handle extra functions and features.

 

Implementation

By the time this product is available to the public, a user will be able to input some custom information such as token name and Stripe API key. Then, the sidechain and token will be deployed. The user is given a program to run alongside the SageCity Wallet, some instructions, and code to insert into a few elements on their platform. The setup is incredibly straightforward.

To cover maintenance, the enterprise can purchase a small amount of SAGE from our company to pay monthly network fees.

 

Our Goal with the IPS

Over the last 3 months we’ve seen a clear demand for this type of system. This demand came mostly from innovative startups and SME’s. These have led us to design the product and roll out a small pilot program with 3 local Edinburgh companies.

We’re working closely with them to understand their needs and make sure our system is as accessible and beneficial as possible. So that when we release the solution globally on our SAGE store, the product can handle all kinds of usages.

We also see a natural progression of this system into the gaming industry. In 2017, $22 billion was generated in gaming micro-transactions. This is a figure that was no doubt hampered by payment processors and financial middlemen. We believe that indie game developers in particular will find this beneficial. IPS provides a way to reduce these fees by providing a framework to track and assign balances to users. That being said, IPS is an industry agnostic system and we would be happy to explore adaptations to suit other industries.

 

Interested in knowing more or want to explore using IPS within your enterprise? Drop the Sagecity team an email team@sagecity.ioto know more.

Scottish based AutoRek partners with US Cforia Inc to provide major productivity gains in Cash Collections

Cash Flow is the lifeblood of all businesses, therefore, shortening the time to collect and apply cash to the Accounts Receivable is a key goal for companies.

As revenue grows and the company’s exposure to accounts receivables increases, the size of the Cash and Collection team (C&C) and number of FTEE’s increases to protect what is typically 60% of a company’s available working capital.

But the C&C team expansion does not occur smoothly; it “reacts” after the Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) and Days Beyond Terms (DBT) reaches an unacceptable financial point of risk tolerance. When the actual DSO exceeds the target DSO tolerance, the “reaction” comes in the form of hiring another C&C team member or two.

Once hired and trained, the delinquent accounts receive more attention and the DSO/DBT responds favourably and begins to drop below target DSO to acceptable levels…and then this process repeats. This could be referred to as the C&C Wash Rinse andRepeat cycle.

So how do companies escape this traditional react-driven C&C growth cycle? What effect does this fits-and-starts “crisis response” cycle have on your company’s working capital? And what do your key stakeholders think about these practices, particularly related to your C&C team and the productivity of their FTEE’s?

This “Crisis-Driven” environment is pervasive across most C&C departments. In response to the latest crisis deux jour, management will allocate the minimum amount of additional resources and no more. It typically starts with temp staff who never seem to leave. OTC managers are excessively busy. Complicating this further is the lack of access to the necessary IT or consulting resources who could provide assistance in the streamlining of the processes.

 

This is the significance of the announcement of a partnership between AutoRek and Cforia Inc

Founded in Glasgow and with offices in Edinburgh, London and New York, AutoRek, is a global provider of reconciliation and advanced Order to Cash solutions for both the Financial Services sector and global corporates.

Cforia Software, Inc. is a global enterprise solutions provider, delivering industry-leading working capital and accounts receivable (A/R) automation software. Over 250 enterprises are managing $300 billion in A/R turnover with Cforia today via their Autonomy Software solution

This partnership means that Cforia will now be able to add AutoRek’s learning algorithm OCR capability with AutoRek’s Automated Reconciliations, Advanced Matching Workflow and Cash Application to their roster.

This will dramatically improve Working Capital results for companies and result in a reduced requirement for additional C&C resource. Indeed, labour savings of above 30% are not untypical after the introduction of the combined solution. It also means that growth issues, in terms of turnover, can be handled without an increase in labour requirements.

AutoRek is delighted with this partnership. It is creating considerable opportunities for AutoRek within the US market where the demand for a single vendor solution’ is high, while also offering more to existing customers.

Managing Director of AutoRek, Gordon McHarg says “AutoRek is excited to announce this strategic alliance with Cforia. Both companies are proven global leaders with multinational clients and use the same advanced technology stack. Most importantly however is that both share the same vision for improving working capital for our customers.

With this announcement, we will be jointly extending our global reach and offering companies an end-to-end solution from cash collection to cash application and cash reconciliation.”

Chris Caparon, CEO of Cforia Software added: “With the integrated release of the Cforia Cash Application and Bank Reconciliation Modules, Cforia.autonomy™ has extended our straight-through-processing capabilities for Zero-Touch Posting of EDI, EFT, ACH, PCI Compliant Credit Card, Direct Debit, Lock-Box and Cash payments. Customers will see immediate impacts in capacity, accuracy and key performance indicators while providing increased visibility, command and control of global working capital.”

With the combined knowledge, AutoRek and Cforia were able to come together to build a globally capable system which can provide solutions which solve the complex system challenges of today’s global enterprises.

Both AutoRek and Cforia are companies hugely familiar with multi-currency clients and multiple billing systems and reconcile millions of transactions daily over the UK and worldwide. For one of their clients, AutoRek reconciled 2.4 billion transactions in only 1 hour.

Helping to build Scotland’s digital expertise

Blog written by Anthony Rafferty, Managing Director at Origo

This week Origo was delighted to welcome Kate Forbes, Minister for Public Finance and Digital Economy to our Edinburgh headquarters to talk about the critical tech-based services Origo delivers for the financial services sector, as well as our commitment to the future generations through our apprenticeship scheme.

We wanted Ms Forbes to see the important work being developed in Scotland and how we as a company invest in our digital skills, including development of relevant apprenticeships, to enable us to deliver industry critical services to the rest of the UK.

Origo is committed to developing digital skills both within the Scottish FinTech sector and within the company, and as well as being introduced to staff generally, we were pleased to be able to introduce Ms Forbes specifically to our apprentices and Cyber Security graduate apprentice, Taylor McAuley.

As Cyber Resilience is important to Scotland’s digital economy, Ms Forbes was also briefed on Origo’s digital ID service, called Unipass, that is used by 8 out 10 financial advisers in the UK to securely access digital services from financial providers and platforms.

We were also proud to provide a demonstration of Origo’s world-leading Pension Finder Service for the Government’s Pensions Dashboard project. The role of Pensions Dashboards is to find and display an individual’s pension savings on one screen and is intended to encourage people to engage with and, where appropriate, take action on their retirement income planning.

Origo has been heavily involved in the Pensions Dashboard project from the outset in 2014 and we are excited by the potential for Pensions Dashboard to not only benefit millions of individuals and potentially improve their financial outcomes, but also help to drive further innovation by facilitating an open pensions environment.

 

Commenting on her visit to our Edinburgh headquarters, Ms Forbes said:

“Origo looks set to reinforce Scotland’s reputation for high quality and innovative digital skills and services. The FinTech is investing in our youth through development and support of apprentices and a graduate apprentice as well as recruiting from a specialist digital academy, Code Clan.

“Origo’s innovative Pension Finder Service will be critical to the Pensions Dashboard project and will also enable other and different FinTechs to get involved in delivering technology such as user interfaces and integration services.

“Scotland is a highly competitive business location, with investment built around the quality of innovation and the digital skills of our workforce. Companies such as Origo can play a big part in making Scotland a centre of digital excellence.”

Alastair Ross, Head of Public Policy (Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland) for the Association of British Insurers, also attended the Minister’s visit. He added:

“Millions of savers stand to benefit from a pensions dashboard system ”“ an initiative with cross-party support and the backing of consumer groups ”“ which will give everyone much easier access to information about their own retirement prospects. The ABI, having led a cross-industry group of pension providers, pension schemes and FinTech companies, has already delivered a great deal of the work needed to make Dashboards a reality and we look forward to continuing this collaboration with Government.”

Origo was formed 30 years ago in Edinburgh, making us one of the UK’s longest established FinTechs and we are proud of our long history at the forefront of innovation in Scotland’s and the UK’s financial services industries.

We are dedicated to improving the financial services industry’s operating efficiencies, lowering costs for market participants and improving outcomes for consumers. We work collaboratively with government, other industry bodies as well as product providers, platforms, financial advisers, portals and software suppliers, to find new ways to cut costs and make processes more efficient.

Exciting news from Agrud Technologies

After a busy few months, Agrud Technologies are pleased to announce a number of exciting developments, along with the launch of our new website.

We have for some time now been expanding our client base and services. Branching out from our origins as Content Curation provider, we have augmented our AI platform, Stella, with real time market data, and a range of new analytics.

Recent work with a Singapore based Robo-Advisor has led us to developing back-end real-time market data delivery with the capacity to be built into pre-existing APIs. This takes away the stress, pressure, and high price tag of sourcing market data, so fintechs can concentrate on honing their platform and investing time in innovation. Moreover, the data we provide can be scaled to suit your company’s exact needs, without burying you under an avalanche of superfluous information.

Further work with an existing client has extended our services to also include brand new market data terminal software. We’re bringing our platform to a wider market than the current industry standards, Bloomberg Terminal and Reuters’ Eikon. Current market terminal software can set businesses back up to £18.500 per year for a single license. At Agrud Technologies we are challenging this status quo, and helping to democratize Wall Street by putting premium data and analytics into the hands of individuals and SMEs.

 

Why not visit www.agrudtech.comto find out a little more about what we’ve been doing.

What the heck is that on my Bank statement?

We have all asked that question at one time or another, fretted and then called our Bank to see if it is fraud. Unfortunately, Banks know less than we do because the payment processors do not tell them what a transaction was for. The majority of these calls are about online purchases so friendly call center staff request that we check our email for a receipt.

For this reason I opened my pitch at EIE19 with the statement, With purchasing going on line, there are now 200x more email sent than there are Google searches’, grabbing the attention of the packed University of Edinburgh’s McEwan hall (my thanks to Danny Helson and the EIE team for an amazing event).  It went down well, two days later I was pitching to a smart bunch of investors at ESM Investments.

 

The cost of not knowing

Finding an email receipt for the corresponding Bank transaction is almost impossible, email has become a dumping ground for spam, phishing and promotions. But it’s not just Fraud we worry about, we often want to find the receipt to return goods or use it to process a business expense. Banks also suffer, they field 6 million calls a year from customers concerned about online fraud (UK Finance.org reported that 78% (£393.4 million) of all fraud was online), at an average cost of £5 per enquiry, this costs the industry in excess of £30m a year. If Banks knew what was purchased they could make our customer experience better, for example,  offering personalised Travel insurance to someone travelling abroad or putting an Uber button in their App to book the onward taxi and pushing the Uber receipt to the Expenses system to be automatically paid back.

Fixing the problem

As a Data Science business we wanted to find a solution to the problem, we decided to use Machine Learning to extract the data in email receipts and enrich the corresponding Banking transaction, we pursued this route for four reasons;

  1. Email was dead  (email is dead – inc.com), it is becoming just another data source.  It was plain that the world had moved on from Email and now prefers Whatsapp, etc for private communication but we all need an email address (and card)  to buy things online.
  2. US financial services were already doing similar stuff, companies like Capital One , Earny.co and Siftwallet.com had been at this for years –  they read email receipts, obtained refunds and have amassed millions of users.
  3. Concerns about Privacy were not founded, especially in Millennials and Gen Zs, as this article Online value exchange by the Populus consultancy showed in The Drum.
  4. Apple and Google already use Machine Learning to auto add things to a Calendar (iOS 10 Siri auto adds events from email) or Wallet, Google now pulls Tickets and Loyalty data from Gmail and puts it in Google Pay (The Verge – April 16 2019).

 

Security and Application

Monily uses the same Machine Learning technology as Apple and Google to extract the data from the email receipt found on your Smartphone and populates the Bank transaction with the items you purchased, with no data going to the cloud. This makes it completely secure, safe and private. At first we developed our own App (Shoppa) but we came to realise the real benefits were for Retail and Business Banking, Personal Financial Management applications and Accounting solutions. Using our Splinter solution, we can help to reduce fraud enquiries by 50%, assist in selling personalised financial products and cut expense processing times down by 30%.

After years of development we are now actively selling the product and are pleased to be collaborating with Money Dashboard, pioneers in Personal Financial Management, and others to reduce fraud and improve expenses processing. If you would like to know more please email me on Adrian.James@moni.ly or visit Monily.co and I’ll get right back to you.

 

 

 

 

Greetings from a new Scottish fintech

Blog by Adam Greenberg, founder of SageCity

Welcome to our first blog post and a big thank you to Fintech Scotland for inviting us into the community. We are an early stage business and have been really touched by the warm welcome we have received from everyone in the community when we attended the fintech fusion event on Thursday.

One of the most explosive growths in the fintech sector in recent years has been the emergence of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Our team have gravitated around the industry since 2013 and we’ve seen the technology evolve from initial Proof of work systems to smart contracting all the way through to DAG technology and mimble-wimble protocol (We didn’t make that last one up).

Blockchain technology is often heralded as the beginning of a new technological era and it has now reached a point where the stage is set for some good old-fashioned adoption. At SageCity, our focus is on bridging the gap between the technology and those who could truly benefit from it. Edinburgh has a vibrant and successful startup industry with some amazing ideas for the future and we’ve been fortunate enough to rub shoulders with a few and offer our support in their vision. Since our inception in August, we’ve been working with local Edinburgh based businesses who are facing challenges which are limiting their business potential by taking the time to listen and design blockchain solutions which are not only successful but efficient and sustainable for the future.

Blockchain had become a bit of a buzzword in recent times with a lot of loosely linked terms tossed around alongside it and that makes it difficult to decipher and comprehend. At its root, we like to think of blockchain as the swiss army knife of ledgers because of the multiple functions and purposes it can serve. Blockchain technology at its core has three key qualities which depending on the situation can offer a number of long and short term benefits to businesses, especially startups and those looking for a competitive edge.

 

It’s adaptable

Blockchains are system agnostic meaning they can be adapted and managed where and when required. Their primary function is often finance related but can equally be data or communications orientated. They can be the top dog running the show or compliment an existing system, be public or private and in some cases, both. The key advantage here is that unlike typical traditional solutions, blockchain technology is extremely flexible and can often be adapted and built upon with minimal difficulty.

 

It’s cheap to operate

In most cases, we can design systems where the only maintenance cost related to a blockchain is the electricity that the computer or server consumes to remain online. Also, depending on the business model, these costs could be cancelled out by the issuance of tokens as a “reward” for those running the blockchain and creating forms of circular economies within the overall business’ ecosystem.

 

Its reliable and secure

Blockchains come in many shapes and sizes but they are almost always designed to be peer to peer. This means that the network has no single point of failure which can be crucial for modern businesses. The nature of peer to peer makes sure that the integrity of the data stored within is virtually untamperable and that content is also heavily encrypted making the blockchain an ideal candidate to be reliable and secure.

Our long term vision is to be able to provide tailored blockchain solutions to startups and businesses around the globe and make deployment a quick and hassle free experience. We’ve got some interesting concepts in the works which we are looking forward to sharing soon which will not only be useful for our endeavours but could be utilised by other Fintech companies who offer industry leading products and solutions.

Hopefully you’ve found this introduction into SageCity and blockchain interesting and hopefully even enjoyable. We are proud to be part of the Scottish Fintech community and looking forward to sharing our journey and helping others on theirs too. We love talking blockchain so if you have any questions you want to bounce off us we’d be happy to help at team@sagecity.ioand sure to follow us on twitter @teamsagecity to stay in the loop.

AutoRek and Glasgow Chamber of Commerce come together for free International Business Development working lunch

AutoRek, a global financial controls, regulatory reporting and data management platform, have announced that they’ll be hosting an International Business Development working lunch in collaboration with Glasgow Chamber of Commerce next month.

The aim of the event is to bring together a number of business leaders from Glasgow’s SME community to discuss the International Business challenges they face and will provide them with an opportunity to work together to overcome such challenges. As a business with roots in Glasgow, AutoRek is keen to offer advice to these businesses, as well as give them the chance to collaborate with like-minded professionals and tackle issues head-on.

Headquartered in Glasgow, with offices in London, Edinburgh and New York, AutoRek’s solutions are deployed globally. They deliver a range of financial, operational and regulatory reporting control solutions. They have supported implementations in many leading organisations with projects including high volume data migrations, elimination of spreadsheets and manual processing, regulatory reporting, mitigation of operational and regulatory risk, and reduction in fast close processes. This makes AutoRek well placed in their collaboration with Glasgow Chamber of Commerce to assist these businesses in combating the challenges they face, Lyn Canavan (Head of Marketing) said:

“We have teamed up Glasgow Chamber of Commerce to host our first in a series of International Business Development working lunches. We believe that it presents a great opportunity for local business leaders to collaborate together sharing ideas and common challenges. We already have a good relationship with Glasgow Chamber of Commerce and we are looking to build upon this partnership and expand globally.”

 

The event will be held between 11:30 and 14:00 on the 5th of March in AutoRek’s offices at the Garment Factory on Montrose Street. A huge plus for these businesses is that the event will be totally free to attend, offering an excellent opportunity to network with other Glasgow-based business professionals and SMEs looking to work on these common issues and expand internationally. With Brexit on the horizon, the impact of it on SMEs has been and is a growing concern. Recently, Barclays has announced that it will be hosting Brexit clinics’ in Scotland from March to support SMEs through Brexit, and, last week, Scotland’s finance secretary Derek Mackay told MSPs that the Scottish economy faces being pushed into a recession “worse than the 2008 financial crash” under a no-deal Brexit. With the loss of multi-million pounds worth of global trade contracts in such an event, it’s no surprise that Scottish SMEs are keen to prepare ahead of it.

 

AutoRek’s offices are located in the heart of Glasgow’s City Centre, just off of George Square and will be easily accessible for all attendees; just a 10-minute walk from Glasgow Central Station.

 

Are you interested in attending the International Business Development working lunch? You can sign up for the event on AutoRek’s website:

https://www.autorek.com/events/international-business-development-working-lunch/

Orca launches Innovative ISA to help investors access multiple P2P platforms

Orca, the Scottish fintech, announced today the launch of its Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA). It will enable investors to invest across multiple peer-to-peer lenders (P2P) by taking down

Until now, investors were only allowed to one P2P platform in an IFISA each tax year. Should they want to invest in an ISA from different platforms, they had to go through a painful process of creating separate accounts with each P2P platform.

One interesting stat given by Orca is that in order to achieve the same level of diversification enabled through Orca’s IFSA, it would have taken five years as opposed to minutes now. They can now invest in 5 leading P2P platforms at once.

Iain Niblock says: “The Orca ISA is an innovation that can make investing in P2P far more accessible to the wider investing public. It gives them a diversified, highly attractive alternative to Cash and Stocks and Shares ISAs.

“Investor funds are automatically spread across many of the UK’s leading P2P platforms. This reduces exposure to any one platform and distributes investment across a much broader range of asset classes and risks.

Mi Rewards: the first card-linked, city-wide loyalty scheme. Here’s how it works

In 2018 we launched Mi Rewards, the cardless, city-wide loyalty scheme, in Perth. It’s the first UK scheme to offer rewards that can be earned and spent across a town or city.

Mi Rewards is unique: consumers don’t need a loyalty card or app. They link their payment cards to the programme and, when they spend in participating businesses, they are automatically rewarded.

Over 2600 consumers and 60+ businesses have signed up. So how and why did we develop Mi Rewards?

 

 

Miconexhave nearly a decade of experience working with UK towns and cities on digital communication and local currency programmes. We manage a successful Gift Card programme with Perth & Kinross Counciland we’ve helped nearly 30 other cities and regionsto replicate this model.

Next we wanted to add a town/city rewards scheme, to:

  • encourage shopping in the city;
  • stimulate additional spend;
  • better understand and communicate with customers;
  • develop new consumer communication channels;
  • measure the impact of events, marketing and planning decisions.

The main issue with traditional town and city loyalty programmes is that the consumer has needed to identify themselves at the point of sale. This means that either all staff in all the businesses require training or that additional hardware/software is required (expensive and unwelcome). We had to remove this friction.

Following extensive research, we concluded that payment-card-linked technology would remove the barriers. We partnered with Stampfeet, Perth and Kinross Council’s City Centre Management Team and a steering group of Perth businesses.

“Stampfeet has vast experience with card-linking technology, and our flexible loyalty platform supports the requirements of a city-wide scheme. We were excited about delivering an excellent product with a great vision.”
Asaf Rozin, Stampfeet CEO

Our proposition provides a frictionless solution:

  • Automatically rewardsparticipating customers;
  • No joining fee;
  • No staff training, additional hardware/software;
  • Cost to business is 1% of qualifying transactions;
  • Points are converted into Perth Gift Cards.

This is highly attractive for consumers and businesses. Once they have registered for the programme the rest of it works automatically. We reward our customers just as Tesco and Nectar do ”“ but without a loyalty card. Mi Rewards and the businesses benefit from data insights into consumer behaviour; we are essentially creating a “single view” of a consumer across a whole network of businesses.

“Mi Rewards allows Place Managers to better understand how people engage with towns and cities and how we can adapt to satisfy evolving consumer preferences. We can improve residents’ experiences and the local economy.”
Leigh Brown, Chair of the Association of Town and City Management and City Centre Manager at Perth & Kinross Council

“I love that Mi Rewards encourages people to shop locally. And it doesn’t pitch one business against another but rewards customers for shopping with us all.”
Dawn Cotton Fuge, owner of Precious Sparkle

We now have 2600 Mi Rewards users (1400 of those have linked at least one payment card). We’ve tracked over £100,000 of local spend to date, gaining powerful insights into retail trends. To engage customers further, we introduced “Points, Perks & Prizes”, where they earn points, win prizes or get perks, e.g. exclusive discounts and offers.

How it works

Because Mi Rewards is cardless and requires no additional software, hardware or training, it’s easy to use. Consumers register at Mi Rewardsand link their payment card(s). Businesses register at Mi Rewards Business. Shoppers are rewarded with pre-loaded credit cards (e.g. a Miconex Gift Card) to spend in registered businesses.

Moving forward

We’ve recently partnered with Stagecoach Group to offer Mi Rewards to bus users. We will also shortly introduce mobility tracking apps which will reward people for walking/cycling into the city centre.

Mi Rewardsallows us to communicate more effectively with consumers, gain insights, reward loyalty and encourage healthier living. We’re in discussions with many towns and cities about the UK/Ireland programme rollout. We believe that Mi Rewardsis the future of town/city loyalty.

Contact

Colin Munro, Managing Director, Miconex
01738 444376
colin@mi-cnx.com