The famous UK-based payment fintech Kodypay from a final year student at the University of York — now co-founder and CEO, Yao-Yun (Yoyo) Chang (who’s now 22) has raised an additional $5 million in Q3 2022. While the latest investors remain undisclosed, the total funding of the company has reached $10 million.
From previous rounds, new and existing investors include KodyPay’s Chairman, Hank Uberoi (Former Executive Chairman/CEO, Earthport PLC), Paul Rippon (Co-Founder, Monzo Bank), Adam Knight (Chairman, CoinFloor and BeZero Carbon), Alok Sama (Former President & CFO, SoftBank Group International) and IBM partner Cognition Foundry, along with other seasoned industry executives.
Founder, President & CEO, Yoyo Chang said in a company press release, “Our ultimate aim is to bring the ease and optionality of online payments to brick & mortar businesses. This oversubscribed funding round validates the KodyPay team’s outstanding efforts as we continue to deliver on our mission. We are now better positioned than ever to truly become the future of payments and build the solutions businesses deserve.”
The Gen Z prodigy!
Son to Paul and Pauline Chang, who had emigrated to the UK from Taiwan in 2003 — Yoyo Chang co-founded KodyPay when he was around 19 years old in his final year of High School. Hoping to build a career in investment banking, Chang started to invest in the stock market at the age of 13. With returns of over 80% in Q4 2016, he led his school team to first place in a national investment competition. However, in 2018, Chang first made a foray into the payments industry by self-investing £120,000 to start up KodyPay. Chang is currently working alongside co-founder Jack Howell and is on a mission to make payment acceptance easy.
Payment powerhouse
Kodypay wants to become a payment powerhouse and is working on a technology that will allow businesses to accept both physical card payments and online ordering at once. All while benefiting from data typically generated by an online transaction, bringing the benefits of e-commerce to in-person payments.
These will comprise leading e-wallets, buy-now-pay-later, open banking and cryptocurrency, with automated payment reconciliation across all payment service providers.
Working already with Visa, MasterCard and IBM, KodyPay’s infrastructure allows businesses to use custom checkout options. Fast casual dining venues can offer contact-free checkout using built-in products such as KodyPay’s no-app QR code ordering. In this way, businesses can increase revenue by letting consumers avoid the need to be served by staff, also they can sign up online in minutes to benefit from low transaction fees, saving up to 60% on processing costs. Those operating in hospitality have seen up to a 20% increase in staff tips.
With a successful trial in October 2021 and a public beta launch in July 2022, KodyPay app has seen significant growth. It now has gross payment volumes (GPV) exceeding £100M on an annualised basis after increasing at an average of 90% month over month. Further, the company has more than 500 venues signed up in the UK and expects strong growth in the coming year.
The company has used funds to scale its headcount across the UK and invest in its strategic partnerships to release new product features. These will soon include embedded finance, enhanced data analytics and loyalty to provide businesses with more value and increase growth.
KodyPay brings the ease and optionality of online payments to brick & mortar businesses. Using an all-in-one iOS/Android app for tablets or physical card machines, KodyPay has created a one-stop, fully integrated payment solution.
From a simple idea of an app that would enable stores to accept payments directly from customers’ mobile phones, slashing transaction fees and eliminating the need for card readers and other hardware, Kodypay has come a long way and is still working hard to transform the future of finance.
