Congratulations to Yoyo! The U.K.-based mobile payments and loyalty marketing platform topped its one million user mark this week. Surpassing this milestone comes less than a month after the company announced a new strategic partnership with Visa to enable consumers to earn their loyalty program benefits when using their Visa card with Yoyo-partnered merchants.
Yoyo commemorated the occasion in part with an interview with its one millionth customer – a Londoner who downloaded the app “a couple of weeks ago” – at the company’s blog. Asked what she has purchased most frequently with her Yoyo app so far, Gloria responded “Definitely coffee!”
Simon Moran (Chief Commercial Officer) and Dave Nicholson (Co-Founder and VP Strategic Partnerships) demonstrating Yoyo’s platform at FinovateEurope 2018.
“Crossing the 1 million user hurdle is something we at Yoyo are immensely proud of,” said Michael Rolph, who was promoted to company CEO in December. “What makes our user metrics even more impressive is the fact we have done it completely organically, whilst building a sustainable and scalable business model.”
Founded in 2013, Yoyo demonstrated its retailer-specific bank card loyalty solution at FinovateEurope 2018. The company’s technology matches card transactions with retailer’s till transactions in real time, linking the customer’s cart with their card payment. Yoyo then applies its loyalty engine to the customer’s cart and seamlessly applies any relevant rewards as if the consumer had used the Yoyo app.
Saying that Yoyo is “truly unlocking the power of payment data,” Rolph put the company’s innovations into an even broader perspective. “We believe the future is about bank enablement, rather than disruption and have some big announcements to come.” Rolph underscored the company’s partnership with Starling Bank and Visa, calling it “proof that the banking sector is beginning to see the need to deliver a Yoyo-powered experience to their customers – watch this space.”
Last month, Yoyo announced a partnership with Preoday, a digital ordering and pre-payment technology company. Through the agreement, consumers can use their Yoyo wallet to pre-order food and beverages at participating retailers. Also in June, the company earned a finalist spot in the TechCrunch Europas Awards in June, and unveiled a quarterly tracker to monitor customer purchasing trends in closed catering environments like workplace cafeterias. Named Best Mobile Payment Solution at the MPE Awards this spring, Yoyo has raised more than $30 million in funding, and includes SOSV among its investors.