Powa Technologies was a UK-based technology company, known for its commerce,
mobile commerce and
e-commerce
E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...
services.
The company’s flagship product was the mobile application ''PowaTag''. In February 2016, investment company
Wellington Management
Wellington Management Company is a private, independent investment management firm with client assets under management totaling over US$1 trillion based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
The firm serves as an investment advisor to over 2 ...
appointed professional services firm
Deloitte
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of profession ...
as
administrators of Powa Technologies.
History
Powa was founded in 2007 by British entrepreneur
Dan Wagner
Daniel Maurice Wagner (born 28 July 1963) is a British Internet entrepreneur. He created MAID, one of the first online information platforms in 1984. He was later the founder and CEO of Venda, ATTRAQT, Powa Technologies and most recently, R ...
. The company received the largest
Series A funding round for a technology start-up at the time, collecting $76 million in August 2013. The investment attracted the attention of
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...
.
In June 2014, Powa Technologies acquired Hong Kong business MPayMe and its ZNAP technology. Following the acquisition, Wagner suggested that Powa had an enterprise value of $2.6 billion.
In 2015, they announced that their planned
LSE £1.6 billion float would be put on hold until the following year. By early 2016, the company had run into financial difficulties, missing payments to staff and third parties. Its
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
office had failed to pay its employees wages on time and to its ex-employees within 7 days, with some employees having to seek help from the Labor Department. On 28 January 2016,
Alessandro Gadotti became CEO of PowaTag in the effort of restructuring the business. During the administration, he also served as interim
CEO
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
for the Group, supporting the process and the sale of the companies in the group. On 19 February 2016, Powa Technologies was placed into administration, and on 23 February 2016, Powa Technologies made 74 of its London-based staff redundant. On 24 February 2016, Powa Technologies filed for bankruptcy and laid off most of their employees. The investment company
Wellington Management
Wellington Management Company is a private, independent investment management firm with client assets under management totaling over US$1 trillion based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
The firm serves as an investment advisor to over 2 ...
appointed professional services firm
Deloitte
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of profession ...
as
administrators of PowaTag.
Revelations of false valuation
''
Business Insider
''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German publ ...
'' revealed that most of Powa's 'contracts' had in fact only been non-binding
letters of intent
A letter of intent (LOI or LoI, or Letter of Intent) is a document outlining the understanding between two or more parties which they intend to formalize in a legally binding agreement. The concept is similar to a heads of agreement, term she ...
; and on 2 March 2016, Sky News revealed that two of Powa's core businesses, PowaWeb and PowaTag, had been sold. Under separate deals, PowaTag was sold to a private consortium led by former Powa Technologies director Ben White, while PowaWeb was sold in a buyout backed by Greenlight Digital, a UK-based digital group whose interests include Greenlight Commerce Platform and OneHydra for SEO.
After the collapse of the business, a series of articles by the
Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
called into question several of the claims that had previously been made. Powa's self-proclaimed 2014 valuation of $2.6 billion was investigated, and it was concluded that $106 million (£75 million) was a more accurate figure. The claimed "10-year strategic alliance with ‘limitless’ potential” deal with China
UnionPay
UnionPay (), also known as China UnionPay () or by its abbreviation, CUP or UPI internationally, is a Chinese state-owned financial services corporation headquartered in Shanghai, China. It provides bank card services and a major card scheme ...
that Dan Wagner personally described in a quote to the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
as “Why did China UnionPay decide to partner with a little British technology company? We’ve trumped
ApplePay
Apple Pay is a mobile payment service by Apple Inc. that allows users to make payments in person, in iOS apps, and on the web. It is supported on these Apple devices: iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, and Mac. It digitizes and can replace a credit ...
and the rest of the world here...” was found to be unknown to China UnionPay who had their lawyers request that Powa stop making the false claims and the majority of the partners upon which the investment and consequent valuation had been based, were found to be just Letters of Intent at best.
ZNAP
''ZNAP'' was a mobile business platform developed by Hong Kong-based company MPayMe, a business technology company founded in 2010. ZNAP supported Internet (online shopping), mobile shopping (via mobile handsets), print (magazines, newspapers), outdoor ads (posters, bus shelters), television, and app-to-app. Basic features included electronic vouchers/coupons, real-time loyalty programme management, alongside secure/efficient
mobile payments
A mobile payment, also referred to as mobile money, mobile money transfer and mobile wallet, is any of various payment processing services operated under financial regulations and performed from or via a mobile device, as the cardinal class of d ...
. The ZNAP mobile app was available for
Apple iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
,
Google Android
Android is a mobile operating system based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open-source software, designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Android is developed by a consortium of de ...
, and
BlackBerry OS supported devices.
In May 2014, ZNAP was acquired by Powa for 75 million USD in an all share deal. ZNAP product and customers merged with Powa Technologies PowaTag division.
PowaTag
PowaTag was a
mobile payment enabling technology and
mobile app
A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...
lication by Powa Technologies.
PowaTag was launched at a March 2014 event in New York by Powa CEO
Dan Wagner
Daniel Maurice Wagner (born 28 July 1963) is a British Internet entrepreneur. He created MAID, one of the first online information platforms in 1984. He was later the founder and CEO of Venda, ATTRAQT, Powa Technologies and most recently, R ...
.
At the time of launch, more than 240 retailers were reported to have signed to use the service,
but later reports revealed that most of the companies had only written non-binding letters of intent.
Features
With the app, users could make purchases using a smartphone, with payment and delivery details tied to a specific device.
The app incorporated elements of
QR code
A QR code (an initialism for quick response code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional barcode) invented in 1994 by the Japanese company Denso Wave. A barcode is a machine-readable optical label that can contain information about th ...
detection, audio recognition, and beacon technology. Audio watermarks in the form of inaudible tones embedded within radio, commercials, or live broadcast events were detectable by the app, taking users to a mobile commerce store where a purchase could be made.
See also
*
Contactless payment
*
Electronic money
Digital currency (digital money, electronic money or electronic currency) is any currency, money, or money-like asset that is primarily managed, stored or exchanged on digital computer systems, especially over the internet. Types of digital cu ...
References
External links
*
*
{{Mobile payments
Online companies of the United Kingdom
Mobile technology companies
Mobile payments
Information technology companies of the United Kingdom