EXCLUSIVE – British bank Barclays is teaming with fintech startup Flux in a trial that allows users to view digital itemized receipts in real-time.
The trial will take place on the Barclays’ Launchpad App, the platform the bank uses to test new features. About 10,000 Barclays Launchpad users will participate in the trial; if successful, it will be rolled out to as many as 5 million Barclays mobile app users.
Pilot participants will be able to view itemized digital receipts from purchases in their banking app. The purpose of these digital real-time receipts is to help users keep track of their spending and thus better manage their financials. Plus, since everything is digital, there is the paperless benefit.
No timeframe has been disclosed for the pilot.
Matty Cusden-Ross, Flux co-founder and CEO said in a today’s statement:
We believe that Flux is the next biggest innovation for retail payments since contactless. Nobody wants to keep track of hundreds of bits of paper in the 21st century. We are determined to digitize the world’s receipts by linking to how customers pay anyways so we don’t change behavior at checkout. We are excited to demonstrate the benefits of Flux to Barclays customers.
Since Flux’s patent pending technology works with both the issuing and acquiring side of the bank, this partnership will also have Flux working with Barclaycard to enable retailers to issue digital receipts to any customer from a participating bank enrolled into the Flux service.
Right now, these participating banks include mobile-first banks Starling Bank and Monzo. The pilot is being tested out on food-chain retailer EAT. If this aspect of the pilot is successful, Barclays will extend the feature to other merchant partners.
Launched in April 2017, Flux was created by former employees of prepaid card startup Revolut. The company allows customers to see an itemized list of their purchases from a particular retailer in real-time, as opposed to just the retailer’s name, total amount, and date that appears on their bank statement.
Additionally, Flux also provides loyalty stamps and other such rewards. Flux’s roster of partners includes food retailers such as EAT and Bel-Air Shoreditch, as well as Starling Bank. Flux was part of the 2017 Barclays Accelerator program powered by Techstars. So far, It has raised $1.5 million in funding. Its investors include London-based V.C. firms PROfounders, Anthemis and Force over Mass Capital.