Will Stratos make consumers forget Apple Pay?
In a payments marketplace already crowded with plastic card consolidators such as Plastc, Swpe and Coin, and mobile payments solutions such as Apple Pay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay and PayPal, Stratos hopes to encourage consumers to pay for plastic that will replace other plastic cards in their wallet. Are they too late to the party?
by: Jim Marous
In a marketplace that seems to be introducing the ‘next best thing’ in payments on a daily basis, Stratos hopes to break through the noise with a payments solution that looks vaguely similar to Coin, a social media sensation that has yet to live up to the initial hype.
Similar to other all-in-one cards Coin, Swyp and Plastc, the Stratos Card is intended to replace multiple pieces of plastic already in a consumer’s wallet with another piece of plastic. Unlike the competition, Stratos is using Bluetooth technology and has answered many of the concerns with other solutions around security, acceptance and introduction delays. The Stratos Card will be shipped beginning in April.
Developed behind closed doors with $7 million in venture capital funding (as opposed to the more public option of crowdfunding), the team at Stratos, headed by 25-year old CEO and co-founder Thiago Olson believes they have created a payments solution for people not yet ready for mobile payments. Olson explained to CNET that the Stratos Card is “like an iPod for your wallet.” He said: “Just like an iPod digitizes and stores all your CDs and music, Stratos stores all your cards while adding security features and FitBit-like card tracking.”
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