Challenger QPay launches for students in UK and Australia
Canberra-based QPay has launched its new banking platform targeting the student sector in Australia.
Designed for students, QPay alerts users about their expenses with a mobile notification with an emoji for whatever it is users spent their money on – e.g. it will show you a pizza slice emoji if you buy pizza.
QPay was founded by Andrew Clapham and Zaki Bouguettaya, and lists Moe Satti and Ahmed Elshearif as staff members.
The platform has also been launched in the UK, with 24,000 students from Cambridge, Oxford, Edinburgh and Durham now using QPay Swipe, a pre-paid card.
The app sends targeted and relevant deals to users, based on previous purchase behaviour, “ranging from discounted Netflix and Spotify to reduced co-op books and burritos”.
The aim of the card is to help students save money on products and services, with future aims to become a challenger bank in both Australia and the UK. There are no more specifics or timelines on that, but we have contacted them and are waiting to hear back.
Interestingly, two investors put some money into it during Australia’s Network 10 reality show Shark Tank: $190,000 each, raising the firm’s investment to $1 million. This funding will be used to expand further in the UK.
The director of the firm’s board is former Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) Australian head Andrew Chick.
QPay should not be confused with the Qatar-based firm of the same name. The latter has offices in the US, New Delhi and Doha. It offers payment card processing, e-commerce, web gateway payments, and mobile payments.
QPay is joining a lively market Down Under and in the UK.
Our comprehensive list of Australian challenger banks is here. The (longer) UK version is here.
