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Clinkle

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Clinkle
Company typePrivately held company
IndustryMobile payments
FoundedPalo Alto, California,
United States (2012 (2012))
FounderLucas Duplan[1][2][3][4]
FatePivot
Headquarters
San Francisco
,
United States
Key people
Jim Breyer
Richard Branson
Barry McCarthy
ProductsClinkle App
Clinkle Card
Treats SDK

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]

History[edit]

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[edit]

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]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Shontell, Alyson. "A bunch of Clinkle employees just left and the startup apparently tried to sell itself to Apple". Business Insider. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  2. ^ "Clinkle Implodes As Employees Quit In Protest Of CEO". TechCrunch. 16 May 2015. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  3. ^ Shontell, Alyson. "A SILICON VALLEY DISASTER: A 21-Year-Old Stanford Kid Got $30 Million, Then Everything Blew Up". Business Insider. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  4. ^ Mac, Ryan. "Clinkle Up In Smoke As Investors Want Their Money Back". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  5. ^ "Mobile payments startup Clinkle nabs $25M in early investments". CNET. 2013-06-27. Retrieved 2018-07-03.
  6. ^ a b "$30 Million And Three Years Later, Mysterious Payments App Clinkle Finally Launches". Business Insider. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  7. ^ a b c d e . The New York Times. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  8. ^ a b c Gallagher, Billy (June 27, 2013). "Clinkle Raises Celebrity-Filled $25M Round As It Gears Up To Eliminate The Physical Wallet". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  9. ^ a b . New York. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
  10. ^ "Highland Capital Partners Announces Summer@Highland 2011 Teams". Highland Capital Partners. July 20, 2011. Archived from the original on April 11, 2014. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
  11. ^ a b Efrati, Amir (April 3, 2013). "Startup's Deep Roots: Stanford". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
  12. ^ Dembosky, April (June 27, 2013). "Facebook backers make big early bet on college start-up". Financial Times. Retrieved January 26, 2014.
  13. ^ Tam, Donna (June 27, 2013). "Mobile payments startup Clinkle nabs $25M in early investments". CNET. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  14. ^ Nusca, Andrew (June 27, 2013). "With $25m in the bank, Clinkle takes on mobile payments". ZDNet. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  15. ^ Wasserman, Todd (June 27, 2013). "Startup Clinkle Gets $25 Million to Create Mobile Payment Standard". Mashable. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  16. ^ "Startup Clinkle Has A High Frequency Plan To Push Mobile Payments". ReadWrite. June 27, 2013. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  17. ^ Geron, Tomio (June 27, 2013). "Payments Startup Clinkle Raises $25 Million Seed Round". Forbes. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  18. ^ Mac, Ryan. "Clinkle Up In Smoke As Investors Want Their Money Back". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-03-04.
  19. ^ American City Business Journals. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
  20. ^ Grant, Rebecca (June 27, 2013). "Clinkle raises massive $25M seed round to transform how we pay for things". VentureBeat. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
  21. ^ a b c Mac, Ryan (September 23, 2013). "Clinkle Up In Smoke As Investors Want Their Money Back". Forbes. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  22. ^ Primack, Dan (October 22, 2013). "Ex-Netflix CFO joins stealth payments startup Clinkle". CNNMoney.com. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
  23. ^ Lawler, Ryan (December 4, 2013). "Stealthy Payments Startup Clinkle Brings On Two Former Netflixers To Fill Out Its Exec Ranks". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
  24. ^ Rey, Jason Del (13 March 2014). "Clinkle's Still a Hot Mess as Its Big Shot COO Departs (Updated)". Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  25. ^ Primack, Dan (December 9, 2013). "Layoffs at stealth payment startup Clinkle". CNNMoney.com. Archived from the original on January 28, 2014. Retrieved January 26, 2014.
  26. ^ Constine, Josh (16 May 2015). "Clinkle Implodes As Employees Quit In Protest Of CEO". Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  27. ^ Vardi, Nathan. "30 Under 30 Finance: The Top Young Traders, Bankers And Dealmakers". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
  28. ^ Team, Forbes Under 30. "Hall Of Shame: The 10 Most Dubious People Ever To Make Our 30 Under 30 List". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-01-30.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  29. ^ Porter, Jon (2023-11-29). "Forbes publishes 30 Under 30 "Hall of Shame."". The Verge. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
  30. ^ Del Rey, Jason (June 27, 2013). "Pressure Is on Stealth Payments Startup Clinkle as It Raises $25 Million From Big-Name Investors". All Things Digital. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  31. ^ Primack, Dan (June 27, 2013). "Clinkle raises $25 million to kill Square". CNNMoney.com. Archived from the original on January 13, 2014. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  32. ^ Huspeni, Andrea (2013). "Richard Branson Invests in a Startup That No One Understands Yet". Entrepreneur. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  33. ^ Fitchard, Kevin (September 26, 2013). "Clinkle becomes a tech celebrity magnet, landing Richard Branson as an investor". GigaOM. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  34. ^ a b Fitchard, Kevin (June 27, 2013). "Stanford's $25M secret: Payments startup Clinkle wants to make your college cashless". GigaOM. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
  35. ^ Constine, Josh (23 September 2014). "Mobile Wallet Laughingstock Clinkle Finally Launches To Let You Pay Friends And Earn "Treats"". Retrieved 16 October 2016.

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

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