At CES 2021 it unveiled its contactless payment wearable and attracted the interest of major investors such as LBS Advisory & Investments. We asked Flywallet Founder Lorenzo Frollini to tell us about these successes and his plans for the coming months.
What do you think are the factors that led LBS to invest in Flywallet?
I think LBS Advisory & Investments saw in our startup a company unlike any other, with a unique value proposition, as confirmed by our participation in the 2021 edition of CES, where we received interest from media around the world as an alternative to existing products and services.
In a world of constant change, we are committed to always being flexible and innovative. We started with a concept of a biometric wearable to make contactless payments. After the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, I realised that we could offer much more to the market. Our value proposition today is a biometric wearable as a platform, connecting the payment, health and mobility ecosystems, all enabled by biometrics on our wearables.
In my opinion biometrics is the key value to offer digital services in the future, first for security aspects thanks to the combined action of fingerprint authentication and electrocardiogram (ECG) together with hardware encryption based on secure element, second for digital health thanks to medical grade monitoring of the user’s vital parameters.
Our platform makes it possible to adapt the functionalities of the wearable according to the Partner’s needs. For example, in the payment vertical, our wallet makes it possible to tokenise payment cards; in the health vertical, we can connect with insurance and/or hospitality systems via APIs; and finally, for the mobility and security world, we can securely manage both logical access to digital platforms and physical access to offices, gyms and homes.
What does their entry into the capital entail?
The entry of LBS into the capital of the company is an important milestone that will allow us to broaden our horizons and accelerate our growth. Its founder, Leonardo Rubattu, will join Flywallet’s Advisory Board. Leonardo, apart from being the former CEO of Iccrea Cooperative Banking Group, is an atypical banker with deep understanding of digital transformation and strategic innovation. He was the one who enabled Satispay’s go-to-market in 2014 and still sits on its Board. He’s also associate professor of digital finance at LUISS Business School. Thanks to his network and experience, he will support us in the launch phase on the Italian market and help the company to reach its full potential. We could therefore say that, in addition to being an achievement, this is also a starting point for us to establish ourselves on the market.
What are your objectives for 2021?
2021 is an important year for Flywallet, as the second half of the year will see the market launch of both the platform and our first device, Keyble, initially for a select number of users. The first services to be available will be, on the payments side, the Mobile Wallet to enable tokenization of payment cards on our wearable devices. On the Digital Health & Insurance side, we plan to provide general services for monitoring the user’s vital signs and also more advanced functionalities with medical grade, such as certified cardiac arrhythmia monitoring, blood oxygen saturation and body temperature. Finally, Physical & Logic Access Control functions will also be available to ensure the security of companies and individuals.
We are looking forward to an intense period full of challenges, which we believe we will successfully overcome, bringing a valid product to the market that will satisfy Partners and users.
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