Clinkle

Clinkle
Privately held company
Industry Mobile payments
Founded Palo Alto, California, United States (2012 (2012))
Founder Lucas Duplan (CEO)
Headquarters San Francisco, United States
Number of employees
 12[1] (2015)
Website www.clinkle.com

Clinkle is a mobile payments startup company. Founded by Lucas Duplan in 2011, the company began as a small group of students. In 2013 it raised $25 million in what became Silicon Valley's largest seed round. The product launched to college students on September 24th, 2014.[2]

History

Clinkle was founded in 2012 by Lucas Duplan, then a computer science student at Stanford University.[3][4] Duplan had decided to work on mobile payments during a study abroad program in London after his freshman year.[4] Upon returning to Stanford, Duplan received guidance from Mehran Sahami, a professor who taught the university's introductory programming methodology class.[5] Clinkle rented a house in Palo Alto, California using money from Duplan's parents and a summer program through Highland Capital Partners.[6][7] With approximately a dozen students building the app, it ran a beta test at Stanford in which testers could send payments to each other.[4]

Through VMware co-founder Diane Greene, Duplan met Accel partner Jim Breyer, who became interested in the company after discussing it with Stanford professors and graduate students.[3] Breyer became an investor following his first meeting and product demonstration with Duplan and participated in a round of funding for the company.[8] By June 2013, Clinkle had raised $25 million from a broad range of investors, including Greene, Andreessen Horowitz, Intel Capital, Intuit, Peter Thiel, and Owen Van Natta.[9][10][11][12][13] The funding amounted to largest seed round in Silicon Valley.[14] Shortly after, Duplan moved the 50-person company from Mountain View to San Francisco.[15]

In October 2013 former Netflix chief financial officer Barry McCarthy became Clinkle's chief operating officer,[16] and two more former Netflix executives later joined as vice presidents.[17] McCarthy left Clinkle after less than 5 months at the company.[18] Near the end of the year, the company laid off a quarter of its employees.[19]

Product

Clinkle released an app for download on Google Play and the iTunes Store. Until September 2014, the app had very limited functionality and only allowed users to join a waitlist.[20] The product launched to college students in September, 2014.

Before launching, the company had released limited information about its product, despite significant press coverage. The product was intended to include a mobile app that served as an online wallet.[20] Wallets would be linked to existing credit cards and bank accounts.[3] A June 2013 report by TechCrunch stated that the app was going to use high-frequency sound to send payments between devices; however, the section was shortly retracted.[5] Clinkle confirmed that the product would not require near field communication, a wireless technology used by Google Wallet and Apple Pay.[3] Clinkle stated that the product would also provide merchants with information about their customers for the purpose of targeted sales promotions.[7]

Clinkle first launched on college campuses and targeted merchants near college campuses.[3][21][22] Clinkle announced on September 26, 2013 that after two months of opening their college waitlists, over 100,000 students had signed up.[23][24]

Launch

The product launched to the public on September 24th 2014 when Clinkle announced their flagship product and allowed college students to download their application.[2]

The launch debuted a Clinkle card that allows users to earn rewards for paying at stores and online. After every seventh payment, Clinkle card users are awarded a Treat. They can send that Treat to a friend along with a photo and a caption. Some Treats refund the recipient's next purchase.

Treats are publicly displayed on a social feed within the app, but the Treat's photo is blurred for the recipient until it's opened. Treats that earn boosts from friends are more likely to open for a free purchase. [25]

References

  1. ↑ Constine, Josh (May 15, 2015). "Clinkle Implodes As Employees Quit In Protest Of CEO". TechCrunch. Retrieved May 17, 2015.
  2. 1 2 http://www.businessinsider.com/clinkle-payments-app-is-live-2014-9
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Wingfield, Nick (June 27, 2013). "Silicon Valley Luminaries Bet on Clinkle, a Payments Start-Up". New York Times. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 Gallagher, Billy (June 27, 2013). "Clinkle Raises Celebrity-Filled $25M Round As It Gears Up To Eliminate The Physical Wallet". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  5. 1 2 Roose, Kevin (June 28, 2013). "How a 22-Year-Old Stanford Grad Won Silicon Valley's Money Chase". New York. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
  6. ↑ "Highland Capital Partners Announces Summer@Highland 2011 Teams". Highland Capital Partners. July 20, 2011. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
  7. 1 2 Efrati, Amir (April 3, 2013). "Startup's Deep Roots: Stanford". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
  8. ↑ Dembosky, April (June 27, 2013). "Facebook backers make big early bet on college start-up". Financial Times. Retrieved January 26, 2014.
  9. ↑ Tam, Donna (June 27, 2013). "Mobile payments startup Clinkle nabs $25M in early investments". CNET. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  10. ↑ Nusca, Andrew (June 27, 2013). "With $25m in the bank, Clinkle takes on mobile payments". ZDNet. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  11. ↑ Wasserman, Todd (June 27, 2013). "Startup Clinkle Gets $25 Million to Create Mobile Payment Standard". Mashable. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  12. ↑ "Startup Clinkle Has A High Frequency Plan To Push Mobile Payments". ReadWrite. June 27, 2013. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  13. ↑ Geron, Tomio (June 27, 2013). "Payments Startup Clinkle Raises $25 Million Seed Round". Forbes. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  14. ↑ Drake, Sarah (December 4, 2013). "Payments startup Clinkle nabs more talent from Netflix as it rounds out its exec team". Silicon Valley Business Journal. American City Business Journals. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
  15. ↑ Grant, Rebecca (June 27, 2013). "Clinkle raises massive $25M seed round to transform how we pay for things". VentureBeat. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
  16. ↑ Primack, Dan (October 22, 2013). "Ex-Netflix CFO joins stealth payments startup Clinkle". CNNMoney.com. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
  17. ↑ Lawler, Ryan (December 4, 2013). "Stealthy Payments Startup Clinkle Brings On Two Former Netflixers To Fill Out Its Exec Ranks". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
  18. ↑ http://recode.net/2014/03/13/clinkles-still-a-hot-mess-as-its-big-shot-coo-departs/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  19. ↑ Primack, Dan (December 9, 2013). "Layoffs at stealth payment startup Clinkle". CNNMoney.com. Retrieved January 26, 2014.
  20. 1 2 Fitchard, Kevin (June 27, 2013). "Stanford's $25M secret: Payments startup Clinkle wants to make your college cashless". GigaOM. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
  21. ↑ Del Rey, Jason (June 27, 2013). "Pressure Is on Stealth Payments Startup Clinkle as It Raises $25 Million From Big-Name Investors". All Things Digital. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  22. ↑ Primack, Dan (June 27, 2013). "Clinkle raises $25 million to kill Square". CNNMoney.com. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  23. ↑ Huspeni, Andrea (2013). "Richard Branson Invests in a Startup That No One Understands Yet". Entrepreneur. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  24. ↑ Fitchard, Kevin (September 26, 2013). "Clinkle becomes a tech celebrity magnet, landing Richard Branson as an investor". GigaOM. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  25. ↑ http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/23/clinkle/

External links

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