Next-Generation Retail Innovation by Soundpays

The global retail landscape is experiencing a major

transformation and becoming increasingly

competitive. With the advent of the digital era,

conventional modes of customer service are getting

disrupted. Even the way a customer shops or shares

his/her opinion on their shopping experience is being

propagated through technological mediums such as

websites, social media, blogs, and vlogs.

To keep up with these changes, the retail industry has

undertaken drastic changes in recent years to improve

business operations and become more customer oriented.

Change is the name of the game. One of the major players

of this revered game is SoundPays.

Started in the year 2015, this Toronto, Canada based

company has made quite a name for itself in the retail and

purchasing innovation space. SoundPays is an early-stage

media-tech company with a cutting edge, mobile

engagement solution that utilizes patented ultrasonic

sound wave technology to connect consumers to

advertising content in real-time.

Sounds Like a Plan

SoundPay’s vision is that every single point-of-sale (POS)

will eventually be transmitting the purchased ticket

directly to the phone through ultrasonic sound to enable a

remote, phone-based payment engagement by the

shopper.

SoundPays aspires to emerge as a new standard in touchless,

contact-less payment. One that will be as universal as

QR Code payment currently is in China. Every single

screen or display, whether in or out-of-home, will be

perpetually transmitting supplemental information

(ultrasonically) which can be downloaded and instantly

acted upon by any phone, in any location, at any time.

Fundamental Contributions

SoundPays has been instrumental in the transformation of

the retail and purchasing landscape through technology in

recent times. But to add to its portfolio, SoundPays

dictates two fundamental things as its most notable

contributions in the sector:

1. In-store or physical locations of conventional

commerce: The ability to make in-store checkout

purchases at a safe distance from the counter and

salesclerk, while at the same time eliminating any

requirement to touch or handle a physical payment device.

2. Out of store: The technology at SoundPays allows for a

truly mobile experience. The company enables advertisers

and broadcast content providers to engage their audience

as they are seeing/hearing their content, whether it is

playing on TV, online, OOH signs, live events, or stadium

screens. The technology provides a profound opportunity

to convert viewers to the ‘power-of-the-moment’ by

combining next-generation marketing, advertising,

commerce, and user convenience in a truly mobile manner.

Viewers can engage while on the fly, while relaxing

watching TV or sitting in a stadium: a complete

omnichannel offering, provided from a single SDK

(software development kit).

Going Ultrasonic!

The customers of SoundPays admire the company for its

user-friendly services despite the advanced tech it keeps

in its arsenal.

These patrons are provided with a solution based on the

company’s patented technology, that they can deploy at

either the media side (enabling advertisements or

programming content with supplemental information

accessible directly from the content) or at the app/wallet

side which allows for receiving and easily accessing the

supplemental information.

This distinguishes both the media content from all

competitor content and the app/wallet capability above all

other conventional apps/wallets. But what makes the

service provider so unique is its patented ultrasonic

technology.

Soundpays sound codes are comprised of a combination of

near-ultrasonic inaudible tones derived mathematically

based on their patented process for converting

frequencies and tones into codes. They are delivered between

mid-18 and 20 kHz, tending to the inaudible frequency.

When an inaudible sound wave embedded into a video is

broadcasted through any type of speaker (TV, phone,

computer, digital sign, stadium speakers, etc.), and when

the SoundPays SDK is activated from a mobile app or

wallet, the mobile device is instructed to listen for tones

above 18 kHz.

The device microphone picks up this sound wave and

the company’s proprietary algorithm then de-codes it

into a human-readable 8- or 10-digit code. This 8- or

10-digit code is then relayed to specific product offers

which are then displayed on the mobile device screen

for review, making it potentially a one-step purchasing

experience.

When fully enabled using SoundPays Commerce, once a

customer clicks on ‘purchase’, the transaction is processed in

the cloud: charging the customer’s selected credit card and

transferring funds to the merchant’s existing merchant account

using the current industry transaction processing ecosystem.

For security purposes, we instruct the microphone to only

listen above 18 kHz. Furthermore, no sounds are recorded, and

no microphone activity ever leaves the mobile phone, and no

microphone activity is delivered to SoundPays server as all the

tones are processed and mathematically calculated locally on

the phone.

A Pioneering Leader

To develop the commercialization strategy, raise the required

funding, and build the team to take the company from a nascent

concept to widespread commercial success, they brought in the

dynamic Steve Doswell.

Steve has been the co-founder or on the initial executive teams

of three Canadian start-ups, all of which grew 400-500

employees prior to being acquired. He has also held executive

entrepreneurship roles as GM of Ericsson Canada and COO of

AOL Canada.

At SoundPays, Steve was responsible for the international

expansion plan, including the signing of a marquee customer in

Europe and lining up the four licensee candidates in Japan.

Steve, as the CEO was also the speaker for some notable

company awards as:

• Finovative Fall (2015) – Best of Show

• Street Contxt (2016) – FinTechTO winner

• Women in payments (2016) – Unicorn challenge winner

• VISA Global Contest for FinTech Startups (2016) -

Finalist

• NTT Data Open Innovation (2017) – Toronto winner

• NTT Data Open Innovation (2017) – Global finalist

• Financial Innovation Japan Business Conference

(2018) – Audience award.

Course-correction and Facing Obstacles

Like many retail solution providers, SoundPays had to fare

through its share of hurdles.

The initial funding was an issue, as it is for most startups in

Canada. Streaking relationships and working closely with

the major Canadian Financial Institutions (FIs) was an

obstacle, as all FIs were at the stage of de-emphasizing and

reducing investments in wallets and mobile payments.

In fact, by late 2016, most entities were de-funding mobile

app strategies, which made it difficult for SoundPays to

establish partnerships based on investing in and elevating

the capabilities of existing apps. In the early days, it

seemed that major entities were highly impressed with the

potential of digitally connecting to media content but

viewed it as a future concept rather than one to initiate at

the time.

To emphasize further on the struggle of the team at

SoundPays, Steve Doswell stated - “Just as the company

started to gain traction and momentum with major entities,

Covid hit the scene and suddenly the SoundPays proposition

became of secondary importance as retail entities were trying

to figure out how to regain traffic in their malls and stores, and

while sports franchises were suddenly having to operate with

empty stadiums.”

The fact that broadcasters, malls, retailers, sports

franchises, cinemas are all focused on dealing with the

impact of Covid above all, and at the expense of their

innovation initiatives represents the startup’s biggest

struggle at this time.

For adapting to the need of the hour, the company

introduced new practices keeping the health and safety of

everyone involved into perspective. Now, all of its

interactions with customers and prospective customers

are exclusively remote. This has made it challenging to

proceed with third-party initiatives.

Steve additionally stated, “Internally, our technology team

has been able to accomplish our product road-map and R&D

objectives for 2020, so this area of our business has not been

materially impacted. However, market-based initiatives have

been.”

Aspiring to Make a Difference

When asked about the strategically driven plans that the

company plans to implement to scale the business in 2021,

the team over at SoundPays graciously provided these five

of their major focuses:

1. Get their two marquee customers back into play. Both

have put their SoundPays initiatives on hold, even

after having very positive results in initial 2019

rollouts. The company plans to help them utilize their

technology as part of adaptive response strategies to

COVID and other issues now facing them.

2. Complete a small ‘Seed’ raise which was started in

2019, but the final closing has been delayed because of

Covid-related factors with several of its prospective

investors. This raise is specifically targeted towards US

VC(s).

3. Complete the product roadmap and R&D initiatives for

2021; including commercializing new technology

designed for the TV and FM radio sectors that was

patented in 2020. SoundPays also intends to file a

third patent in 2012.

4. Close impending contracts with the top-eight of their

key pipeline prospects in North America. All of these

prospects were initially expected to be in the market

during 2020, but all were delayed because of Covidrelated

matters, and the resulting new priorities. They

expect that all will be ready to proceed with initial

plans in 2021.

5. Launching in Japan, the company has amassed a group

of four potential licensees that it has been in

discussion with. It completed highly successful POCs

with three of these entities early in 2020. All of these

led to discussions and negotiations around commercial

launches. SoundPays also signed an agreement with a

fourth entity to collaborate on a commercial launch.

All four entities are major corporate conglomerates or

major brands in Japan. All were impacted by Covidrelated

delays but should be ready to proceed in 2021.

Conclusively, SoundPays is proving to be commercially

viable in dozens of different sites and use cases. The team

is growing, dynamic and enthusiastic, and dedicated to

creating new frictionless engagement and commerce

channels that will inevitably simplify consumer lifestyle

and become an everyday part of our lives.

03 | MM 2020 www.thebusinessberg.com