Ukrainian mobile payment startup Advice Wallet closed their latest funding round at 1.5 million dollars with Russian Life.SREDA, a venture fund focusing on mobile and online fintech startups.
The new waiter freeapp is a service meant to simplify the eat-out experience and make it less time consuming for both merchant and customer. Once it will be launched on 8 August, their product Settle is ready to be used as a pay and go app at a touch of a button.
More functions, bigger markets
The team is planning to use the investment to extend functionalities and expand the product in Moscow and Warsaw. In the later versions of Settle, users will be able to “view the menu and order via their phone, split the bill, make cash transfers and receive bonuses for loyalty,” said Stas Mikhaylenko, CEO of Advice Wallet. The app is planning to use “iBeacon technology for automatic check-ins, meaning that beacons installed in restaurants, will automatically detect a customer with the app and send them personalized offers,” added Mikhaylenko.
While attracting investments for Advice Wallet project from Life.SREDA, the Ukrainian company decided to focus on a fintech project to meet the criteria of the venture fund.
“We knew about the problem with making payments at restaurants and we wanted to improve this experience, so we brought it up in our of our meetings and discussed with Vyacheslav Solodkiy, Managing Partner and CEO at Life.SREDA. We came up with the idea to create a mobile appbridging payment service and loyalty program, and we created the prototype in two weeks as well as started an integration with the biggest and the most innovative bank in Ukraine,” said Mikhaylenko.
With a team of 17 members and their main office in Kiev, the application came to life with a very clear business model based on commission. Users download the app for free and restaurants get Settle tablets to view the information about customers and bill them. “While the subscription is free, the service charges the merchant a commission fee on every bill. This helps retailers significantly expedite the process of billing and improve customer service,” explained Mikhaylenko.
