Clinkle was a mobile payments company founded in 2012. In 2013 they raised $25 million[5] and the product launched to college students on September 24, 2014.[6]
 | |
| Company type | Privately held company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Mobile payments |
| Founded | Palo Alto, California, United States (2012) |
| Founder | Lucas Duplan[1][2][3][4] |
| Fate | Pivot |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Jim Breyer Richard Branson Barry McCarthy |
| Products | Clinkle App Clinkle Card Treats SDK |
History
Clinkle was founded in 2011 by Lucas Duplan, then a computer science student at Stanford University.[7][8] Duplan had decided to work on mobile payments during a study abroad program in London after his freshman year.[8] Upon returning to Stanford, Duplan received guidance from Mehran Sahami, a professor who taught the university's introductory programming methodology class.[9] Clinkle rented a house in Palo Alto, California using money from Duplan's parents and a summer program through Highland Capital Partners.[10][11] With approximately a dozen students building the app, it ran a beta test at Stanford in which testers could send payments to each other.[8]
Through VMware co-founder Diane Greene, Duplan met Accel partner Jim Breyer, who became interested in the company after discussing it with Stanford professors and graduate students.[7] Breyer became an investor following his first meeting and product demonstration with Duplan and participated in a round of funding for the company.[12] By June 2013, Clinkle had raised $25 million from a broad range of investors, including Greene, Andreessen Horowitz, Intel Capital, Intuit, Peter Thiel, Owen Van Natta, and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff.[13][14][15][16][17][18] The funding amounted to the largest seed round in Silicon Valley.[19] Shortly after, Duplan moved the 50-person company from Mountain View to San Francisco.[20] In 2016 a photo was leaked of CEO Duplan and Richard Branson burning wads of fake $100 bills.[21]
In October 2013, former Netflix chief financial officer Barry McCarthy became Clinkle's chief operating officer,[22] and two more former Netflix executives later joined as vice presidents.[23] McCarthy left Clinkle after less than 5 months at the company.[24] Near the end of the year, the company laid off a quarter of its employees.[25] In 2015, seven core employees quit and the remaining team was believed to be mostly consultants providing support and no more than 12, down from 70 several years ago.[26] Forbes reported in January 2016 that investors were losing patience with the lack of any market product and were requesting a return of funds.[21]
In November 2014 Lucas Duplan was listed on Forbes 30 Under 30,[27] a pick the publication regretted nine years later, placing Duplan on its Hall of Shame, featuring ten picks it wished it could take back.[28][29]
Product
Clinkle released an app for download on Google Play and the iTunes Store. Clinkle first launched on college campuses and targeted merchants near college campuses.[7][30][31] Clinkle announced on September 26, 2013, that after two months of opening their college waitlists, over 100,000 students had signed up despite no clear product description.[32][33] Until September 2014, the app had very limited functionality and only allowed users to join a waitlist with a launch date of September 2014.[34]
Before launching, the company had released limited information about its product, despite significant press coverage.[citation needed] The product was intended to include a mobile app that served as an online wallet.[34] Wallets would be linked to existing credit cards and bank accounts.[7] A June 2013 report by TechCrunch stated that the app was going to use high-frequency sound to send payments between devices; however, the section was shortly retracted.[9] Clinkle confirmed that the product would not require near field communication, a wireless technology used by Google Wallet and Apple Pay.[7] Clinkle stated that the product would also provide merchants with information about their customers for the purpose of targeted sales promotions.[11]
Despite its initial launch as an alternative payments processing system, it lost its technological edge to new products like Venmo, a peer-to-peer payments app, and later Apple Pay, which achieved what the company had originally set out to do.[21] The company decided to pivot, and launched to the public on September 24, 2014, a new flagship downloadable application aimed at college students.[6]
The launch debuted a Clinkle Card that allowed users to earn rewards for paying at stores and online. After every seventh payment, Clinkle card users were awarded a "Treat" to send to a friend, which had a chance of earning the recipient a free purchase.[35]