Who are we talking about?
What is so unique about them?
Plastc is a credit card payment solution that works by combining your credit cards, debit cards, loyalty cards, membership and gift cards all into one single convenient card paired with your smartphone. The cards have a built-in e-ink screen that displays the numbers or bar code for one of the 20 stored cards. The card’s security is ensured via several features such as a secure PIN lock, facial recognition, remote wipe, proximity alerts to your smartphone, etc. It is also future ready, with a built in EMV chip for global payment compatibility. (EMV is a technology named after its original developers — Europay, MasterCard and Visa — that features payment instruments with embedded microprocessor chips that store and protect cardholder data.)
Why should you care?
Brands might have an opportunity to partner with Plastc to seek permission from consumers to monitor their spending habits anonymously and create specialized offers for them, similar to a Mint.com.
Who is their competition?
The payment platform has direct competition from other digital wallet solutions that work by combining credit cards, such as Stratos and Coin, with very similar product offerings at comparable price points. Mobile platforms such as Apple Pay/Apple Passbook and Google Wallet, which have capabilities to store your credit, debit and gift cards, are also significant competitors to digital wallet cards such as Plastc.
What does their future look like?
Plastc is taking the most popular form of swipe-based payment card technology and making it future ready with contactless payment technology and an embedded chip to conform to global credit and debit card standards. Plastc, along with a service like Mint.com could be a powerful aggregator of your financial transactions across the online and offline world.