IEEE Spectrum October, 2012 - 30
start-up
PaY HErE: An app on a customer's smartphone generates onscreen payment bar codes
and records progress toward a reward [above].
Levelup's reader [left] is based on a 3G
smartphone and uses its camera to record the
bar codes. Photo: stePhen cass; screen shot: leveluP
LevelUp
http://www.thelevelup.com
Founded: 2011
Headquarters: Boston
Founder: Seth Priebatsch
Employees: 148
Funding: $41 million
(includes capital raised
by Scvngr)
brainchild of Seth Priebatsch,
who rose to prominence as the
founder of Scvngr, an early
leader in "gamification." The
concept is to use gamelike
elements to persuade people
to participate in nongame
activities, such as visiting a
physical location and sharing
that visit via social networks.
The LevelUp technology was
developed after Priebatsch
30
saw that the original Scvngr
mobile app was "really
good at getting people to do
things at places but wasn't
really driving transactional
revenue for businesses,"
says Christina Dorobek,
LevelUp's vice president
of partner development.
"LevelUp is a tool to
connect people to places,
but through a transaction
rather than social media."
LevelUp is available from
at least one vendor in 25 U.S.
cities at press time, with
larger cities such as New York
or San Francisco boasting
hundreds of locations
that accept LevelUp. This
summer it raised $21 million
in funding (in total, Scvngr
and LevelUp have raised
nearly $41 million since 2008).
NA * iEEE SpEctrum * OctObEr 2012
Google Ventures is an investor, to customers and merchants,
as is Continental Investors, a
with such features as its
venture capital firm founded
reward system, in order to
by Phil Purcell, creator of
build its active user base.
the Discover credit card.
So far, if the company's
LevelUp's stiffest
claim of 200 000 active users
competition is likely to come
"is accurate, that's pretty good;
from banks licensing similar
that's exactly where they want
bar-code and token-based
to be," says Wannemacher.
technologies from companies
The start-up is also
such as FIS (an established
working with cash
banking and payment
register manufacturers
technology provider), says
to develop built-in support
Peter Wannemacher, an
for LevelUp's system
analyst with the business
and is demonstrating a
intelligence firm Forrester
prototype e-commerce
Research. The banks can label system, in which a QR code
the technology with their
on a customer's phone is
own brands and exploit their
captured via webcam to
existing relationships with
authorize online payment.
merchants and customers
-Stephen Cass
to gain market share.
To prevail, LevelUp must
A version of this article appeared
continue to differentiate itself
online in August.
spectrum.ieee.org
http://www.thelevelup.com
http://spectrum.ieee.org
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum October, 2012
IEEE Spectrum October, 2012 - Cover1
IEEE Spectrum October, 2012 - Cover2
IEEE Spectrum October, 2012 - 1
IEEE Spectrum October, 2012 - 2
IEEE Spectrum October, 2012 - 3
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IEEE Spectrum October, 2012 - 78
IEEE Spectrum October, 2012 - 79
IEEE Spectrum October, 2012 - 80
IEEE Spectrum October, 2012 - Cover3
IEEE Spectrum October, 2012 - Cover4
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