Hi, I came across Fingopay on Crowdcube and think it’s quite an interesting concept and potentially very scalable. It seems to have VC backing although not yet operational and has a high valuation. What are people’s thought on the company as an investment?
The valuation seems high, a worrying trend in equity crowdfunding ( ECF ). I really wish ECF platforms would consider providing more guidance pre-pitch.
Perhaps ECF’s fear of if we don’t list it on our platform then someone else will and we’ll miss out?
If it had come a few years before mobile payments I think it could have been massive. As it stands now, I think it’s an interesting idea but ultimately won’t really catch on.
I’m always a little wary of new payment platforms, there are just so many to choose from now and a lot don’t always work out (see SnapCash - @Ian might have some thoughts on this one ), and the industry has typically shown strong resistance to biometrics for various reasons that don’t always make sense
Thanks for sharing this, it’s an interesting idea
I won’t be investing though, there’s so many ways to solve this problem & I expect that one of the existing solutions scaling or being adapted like Apple / Google Pay or cards with biometric verification, have a much higher chance of succeeding vs trying to get these scanners installed in stores.
Also, I’m definitely not an expert on security but the idea of storing my biometrics in the cloud doesn’t sit well with me, given that Apple made a point of not doing that sort of thing.
I’d read about this company a year ago and thought it was really good! But now it’s on Crowdcube and I’ve read about it, I’m not bought in enough to actually invest.
The valuation is high but justified to some extent by the recent funding at the same level. However, I wonder if they were unable to get all the funding they wanted and so are getting the rest via crowdfunding.
Payments is a very hot space at present, so I’d need to be amazed by them to invest…
@tommy I don’t know exactly what happened with Snapcash but from what I heard making it work globally was a big regulatory challenge and maintaining it in the US wasn’t worth while especially with Venmo’s success. As for biometrics, as @anon2636484 has said, storing biometrics in the cloud is problematic as you can’t reset them should they become compromised.