Back Icon

Back to Insights

March 9, 2018

Fintech Profile: WalletFi

Fintech Companies of the Carolinas:
Company:

Leadership Team:
Alain Glanzman Co-Founder, CEO Previously founded two companies and managed a portfolio of products across 100+ countries. MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler.

Marc Miller Co-Founder, COO Previously co-founded and grew Elevate Technology Solutions to $17MM in revenue before exiting. Elevate was named to the Inc. 500 and Inc. 5000.

Website/Social Platforms:
Website- www.walletfi.com    @walletfi, @rellimcram, @alainglanzman

Company Overview:
WalletFi is a digital switch kit that allows customers to easily identify, cancel, and move subscription and card-on-file payments across cards in their digital wallet. Having a debit or credit card reissued is a painful process for both consumers and financial institutions. This can largely be attributed to the growth of the subscription economy, with most types of recurring services accepting online payments (Netflix, Spotify, Geico, etc.). To stay top of wallet, banks and credit unions are challenged to find better ways to acquire and retain customers. WalletFi’s white label and API capabilities help financial institutions to provide a better customer experience during customer onboarding and card reissuance.

What is the inspiration for your company?
At WalletFi, we believe in providing a better customer experience. WalletFi was built to solve pain points that we felt personally as consumers and that personal connection continues to shape the product and company to this day.

Who is your competition and how do you distinguish your company?
B2C- Trim and Truebill are the two closest competitors that address the identification of subscriptions and recurring charges. Neither app allows its users to move their subscriptions between cards.

B2B- Visa, Mastercard, AMEX, and Discover all have “account updater services” that automatically update merchants with new card numbers. However, some consumers react negatively to the notion that FI’s are updating their card number for subscription services without the consumers’ knowledge or permission.

WalletFi is different in that it takes the best of B2C functionality and applies it to a B2B2C business model by allowing the customer be in control of the process.

Why are the Carolinas ideal for your company?
We live by the mantra that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. WalletFi was founded in Chapel Hill, NC and is headquartered in Durham, NC . The Triangle is our home. Being a contributing part to an area with a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem was a natural fit. From our early days, we established relationships with other fintech startups in the community, as well as financial institutions, to share ideas and make beneficial connections.

WalletFi is technology that is built for bank customers and credit union members. We align naturally with Carolina Fintech leaders as we too are passionate and focused on delivering a valuable experience, through partnership with the those same leaders. We each stand to benefit through effective collaboration and mentorship, creating a strong and unique ecosystem.

Recent Accomplishments and Challenges (share with our audience how your company has made recent progress)

Recent Accomplishments
• April 2017- Accepted into both the Barclays Techstars Accelerator and VC FinTech Accelerator sponsored by FIS.
• July- Presented to 400+ financial institutions and FinTech investors at Demo Day for the FIS-VC FinTech Accelerator
• September- Completed $300K of seed funding
• December- Submitted our first bank agreement
• February- Scheduled product release of WalletFi 2.0

Challenges
• Long sales cycles with banks
• Lack of standard payment APIs
• Perceived procurement risks around being a startup trying to partner with big banks

What is Next?… (for you, the industry, the next 5 years?)

We believe that in the near future, most of what you consume will be purchased on a pay-as-you-go, on-demand model. Whether it’s your Netflix membership or the car you drive, the entire economy could run off of subscriptions. As subscriptions continue to balloon, the act of updating one’s payment information when a card gets reissued will become nearly impossible without the proper tools and technology like WalletFi.

Mark Woollen's Avatar Image

Posted by Mark Woollen