Next-gen payments
Payr enables Norwegian customers to pay invoices in smart and flexible ways
Photo courtesy of Payr
With Payr, customers can manage all forms of payment through one app.
Rasmus Falck
Oslo, Norway
Payr is a new bill-payment platform that saves customers time and money while offering businesses lower customer-acquisition costs. Following a great first month after launching their product, the company decided to increase their payment limits. Customers can now pay up to NOK 20,000 per 30 days without any fee, an increase from NOK 10,000. The limit for the total amount of invoices the customer can pay has also increased; in each 30-day period, the customer can pay up to a total of NOK 100,000.
The company works from the MESH co-working space in Oslo, the leading independent space for Norwegian entrepreneurs. They are proud to mention that the management team has backgrounds in entrepreneurship, marketing and design, and bank and finance technology consulting, as well as a love for startups.
They already have seasoned investors on board and NOK 3.2 million in fresh equity. This round of investments from family and friends enabled the company to prepare for launching, according to the founders. In the future they hope to raise an addition NOK 6 to 15 million.
Payr is the next-generation payment platform app empowering customers to pay invoices in flexible and smart ways. The customers can pay any invoice using their bank account, debit or credit card, or digital wallets, saving time and money. There are a lot of benefits for the client to pay using credit and debit cards and e-wallets such as PayPal or Google Wallet. The client can also accumulate credit card bonus points for every krone, pound, dollar, or euro they spend on bills.
The startup also improves invoice payments by analyzing what the customer pays and then providing suggestions on cheaper or better providers of the same service or product. They also provide independent price and quality comparison and enable simple and fast switching directly in their app to providers that offer greater value to the customer. This makes it very simple for the customer to save, get better value, or both.
Payr wants to go so far as to support the entire financial life of the client, including bank accounts and card transactions, PayPal accounts, and bitcoins. Then they will be able to manage the customer’s money, open accounts, transfer funds, and pay bills for all those accounts.
Luckily the political landscape is in favor of the startup. The European Union is introducing a regulation called the Payment Services Directive 2 that requires banks to share their customers’ financial transactions with third-party providers if the customer agrees.
In Norway there are more than three million eFaktura invoice users, which received over 90 million digital bills in 2016. Only Norwegian banks have so far been allowed to offer their customers to pay these electronic invoices. Now Payr has been cleared to become the first non-bank to offer full integration of eFaktura. eFaktura is a very important component because it will make sure those who choose to use Payr do not have to migrate any invoices. All e-invoices will simply appear in the app as these are already linked to the client’s BandID.
The startup’s goal is to give an all-in-one solution for the client’s entire financial life, with everything related to their economy all in one place. Sounds too good to be true, but this is something the founders believe is achievable within a not-too-distant future!
Rasmus Falck is a strong innovation and entrepreneurship advocate. The author of “What do the best do better” and “The board of directors as a resource in SME,” he received his masters degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He currently lives in Oslo, Norway.
This article originally appeared in the Oct. 6, 2017, issue of The Norwegian American. To subscribe, visit SUBSCRIBE or call us at (206) 784-4617.
