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Virtual Piggy Gets Real, Transitions from Payment Card to Mobile App

Virtual Piggy Gets Real, Transitions from Payment Card to Mobile App

logo-virtual-piggyVirtual Piggy, the under-17 payment system, is growing up.

The company announced today that it is transitioning away from its origins as a payment card system in order to embrace real-time, P2P mobile payments. In a note at the Virtual Piggy website titled “A Family Focused Mobile Banking Solution,” the company explains its goal of “restor(ing) value to the company” by partnering with “telecom companies, tech firms, and banking companies; strong companies with the financial wherewithal to progress our framework to fully realized product.”

Specifically, the company is abandoning its white-label, bank-oriented debit card strategy in favor of “instant P2P transfers utilizing mobile phones and online systems.” How will the new approach make money? Virtual Piggy is developing an “instant revenue-generating membership system” which they believe will provide greater flexibility, security, and keep customer acquisition costs—and regulatory hurdles—minimal. Virtual Piggy also announced a set of new software utilities that enhance their intellectual property portfolio including their Real Time Regulatory Oversight (ReTRO); Virtual Piggy Secure Financial Messaging (VPSM); and a data-mining app called Networks of Meaning ad-vantage (NOMad).

It has been just over a year since the company announced the neon release of its Oink 2.0 solution, adding TouchID, enhanced notifications, and P2P functionality to allow family and friends to deposit money in the Oink account. The company was featured in USA Today last spring in a list of five financial must-haves for college grads.

Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Hermosa Beach, California, Virtual Piggy demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2013. Co-founded by Dr. Jo Webber and Pradeep Ittycheria, the company rebranded as Oink in late 2013 and has raised $37 million in funding. John Coyne joined the company as CEO and chairman in May 2016.