Listen to this articleBelow is our recent interview with Yale Goldberg, Chief operating officer at PopID:
Q: Could you provide our readers with a brief introduction to your company?
A: PopID is a Pasadena based subsidiary of The Cali Group, a restaurant technology focused parent company that has incubated technology startups such as Miso Robotics and Kitchen United. PopID aims to be a universal authentication service that allows the general consumer to leave their wallet behind and use their face to authenticate themselves. Via a simple registration process (that takes about 30 seconds) that can be found at popid.com/register, users can create a cloud-based profile. After completing the profile they can be added to the “watchlist” for face-based entry into buildings that they have access to and can use their face to complete payments at restaurants and retailers that accept PopPay, PopID’s payment product.
Q: Any highlights on your recent announcement?
A: PopID recently closed a $10M financing and PopPay is now accepted at 100 merchants across 5 college towns. The return of students to campus has drastically increased the number of registered users and weekly active users as students at San Diego State University, University of Southern California, Chapman University, Pasadena Community College and UC-Santa Barbara are using their face to enter into their place of residence and to complete payments at their favorite restaurants around campus every day.
Additionally, PopID is excited to be able to offer flexible payment for users. The PopPay platform allows users to make purchases without the need to pay at the time of the transaction. Instead users are floated money by PopID and are able to pay at a later date. As these users continue to use PopPay and make their payments they are gradually extended more money and time to complete payments.
Q: Can you give us more insights into your offering?
A: Our two core products are PopPay, a payment product, and PopEntry, an access control solution.
PopPay: PopPay allows consumers to use their face to complete payments at retailers that accept PopPay (now over 100 merchants across 5 campuses). At these merchants the consumer will see a face-pay tablet at the point of sale and are able to ask the cashier to pay with PopPay. Upon asking to pay with PopPay the user smiles at the tablet and will quickly see a message that their transaction is complete. As I described previously, the PopPay platform allows users to make purchases without the need to pay at the time of the transaction. Instead users are floated money by PopID and are able to pay at a later date. As these users continue to use PopPay and make their payments they are gradually extended more money and time to complete their payments. Furthermore, merchants benefit from the use of PopPay because PopPay charges significantly lower processing rates than competitors.
PopEntry: PopEntry is an access control solution that requires only a face. Instead of pulling out a phone and loading a digital key or walking around with a pocket full of keys, PopEntry allows those that are granted access to the building to simply smile at the PopEntry tablet to unlock the door. PopEntry can be a complete access control solution or simply an add-on device to add face-based entry to an existing access control system.
Q: What can we expect from your company in next 6 months? What are your plans?
A: Over the next 6 months you can expect to see PopID expand to many additional college campuses. The 5 campuses that currently have PopEntry and PopPay have demonstrated that college students love the ease of entering into buildings and transacting with their face and we are excited to offer this capability to more students.
Q: What is the best thing about your company that people might not know about?
A: From the consumer perspective, I would have to say that all of PopID’s products are user-initiated. Unlike other facial recognition services we never perform any type of surveillance. Instead, our users decide when they would like to be authenticated. Most people do not recognize this until they begin using our products, but come to appreciate that they maintain complete control over how and when they authenticate themselves.
