As part of the UKTI and the London Mayor Boris Johnson's visit to Kuala Lumpur, Yoyo, the mobile platform that seamlessly blends payment, loyalty and discovery via its mobile wallet app, announces today that it has reached an understanding with Tune Group to create a Joint Venture to expand Yoyo to the Asian market as well as become the world's first mobile-powered cashless and loyalty system for in-flight purchases on AirAsia, the world's best low cost-airline for six consecutive years.
The hot London based start-up, founded in May 2013 by Alain Falys (founder OB10), Michael Rolph (ex Barclaycard, First Data and PayPal) and Dave Nicholson (founder Zopa) first launched its mobile payment & loyalty app in January 2014 at Imperial College, London, where it has rapidly grown to represent over 20% share of checkout on campus. Yoyo is now live at seven universities and a number of retail chains, including its first Scottish campus at Strathclyde University and is powering over 75,000 transactions a month and growing. Yoyo is on track to be live in 20 universities and a number of retail chains by end of Q1 2015, making it the most widely used mobile loyalty and payment app in the UK.
“Yoyo is highly scalable across geographies, said Alain Falys, co-founder and CEO of Yoyo, and Southeast Asia represents fantastic growth possibilities. The proposed Joint Venture between Yoyo and the Tune Group, with AirAsia and its 55m passengers a year at its core, will be a formidable launch pad to transform mobile payment combined with loyalty in this dynamic region.”
The opportunity to establish the Joint Venture came as a result of the Duke of York introducing the Yoyo founders to the Tune Group co-founder, Tony Fernandes. Yoyo had previously shined at the first Pitch at the Palace initiative, winning two awards for ‘best pitch’ and ‘most innovative idea’.
“At AirAsia and throughout all our businesses in Tune Group, innovation is a key factor and Yoyo’s features complement what we have in mind for the Group, starting with AirAsia. We expect Yoyo to provide an enhanced in-flight retail experience for AirAsia guests,” said Tony Fernandes, co-founder of Tune Group as well as Group CEO of AirAsia guests and we sincerely thank the Duke of York for making this incredible connection”.
The Joint Venture will roll out across the Tune Group, starting at AirAsia, making it the first airline in the world to deploy in-flight mobile payment and loyalty transactions. The Joint Venture will also work with retailers across the region, to enable greater understanding of customer behavior and speedier transactions through Yoyo.
“The opportunity to work with Tune Group to roll Yoyo out across Asia is a unique one.” said Michael Rolph, Yoyo co-founder and CCO. “Tune Group’s presence throughout the region will greatly speed up the growth of Yoyo around the world, showing all others that there is only one reason to use mobile in a retail transaction - Yoyo.”
Yoyo is part of the London tech trade Mission to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore with the UKTI. The Mayor of London Boris Johnson, who is leading the Far East trade mission, commented "I'm delighted, this is brilliant news. This is exactly why we brought 26 leading tech start ups to Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia - to open doors, to offer introductions, to do business for UK plc and London. Yoyo's deal with Tony Fernandes and Tune Group is the perfect example, two world leading businesses working together in a growing global market to revolutionise mobile payment and loyalty rewards via a one touch app."