Can Password Manager Dashlane Race ahead in Wallet Wars?
Dashlane, a password manager with offices in New York City and Paris, announced on May 9 that its digital wallet has surpassed $5 billion in online consumer spending. Could this digital identity company become a leader in the wallet wars?
Dashlane enables its more than 4.5 million users to securely manage passwords, credit cards, IDs and other information via encryption and local storage. During the checkout process, Dashlane automatically detects shipping, billing and payment form fields and prompts users to select their desired payment. Once selected, Dashlane automatically fills out all of the necessary forms. A checkout process that typically takes a few minutes turns into one or two clicks, the company said. The service is free to use on one device and Dashlane Premium costs $39.99 a year to sync between an unlimited number of devices.
In addition to its spending milestone, the company announced a deal with Banamex, Mexico’s largest bank, which will increase Dashlane’s global footprint. To date, Dashlane has received $30 million in funding from Rho Ventures, FirstMark Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners.
But Dashlane isn’t alone in its mission to create ubiquitous digital identity for payments. Patrick Gauthier, vice president, Amazon Payments, told Paybefore at Money20/20 Europe that the e-commerce giant’s payments business is about providing the commerce identity that helps consumers buy what they want, when and with confidence. In the past year the company has been taking steps in that direction with the launch of voice-controlled banking with Capital One and a partnership with Ford to enable Amazon customers to control garage doors and porch lights, access music, shopping and appointment lists, and perform other tasks while in their cars. Other companies vying for a position to enable faster online payments with stored credentials include: PayPal, Stripe, MasterCard, Visa and American Express.
Dashlane says what makes it different is that its digital wallet works on all Websites. “The unique advantage of using Dashlane for online payments comes from our universal capability,” said Emmanuel Schalit, CEO of Dashlane. “While other forms of online payment and identity management are limited in scope by device type, operating system or merchant adoption, Dashlane works everywhere. This helps remove the majority of the friction consumers face when completing online transactions.”
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