Emu.Me: Are We Heading For A Cashless Future?

The World Payments Report 2014 by Capgemini and RBS showed that electronic payments (e-payments), online and mobile payments (m-payments) are on the rise, and the trend does not show signs of stopping. Quite the contrary, e-payments and mobile payment transactions are expected to grow by 16% and 60%, respectively, in 2015. We may be facing a completely cashless future, and we just might be better off for it.

But how do all these different means and methods of cashless payment work? Let’s try to explain using Emu.Me as an example. There are many different solutions like Square, iZettle, mPowa and PayPal, and they allow cashless payments in different ways. Emu is a flat-fee card payment acceptance startup that launched in the U.K. in 2012.

Emu For Business

What this startup is basically offering are small businesses feeless card payments for the first €1,250 of sales, followed by a flat per-month fee of €6.50. Their target market are European sellers who do not accept credit cards, some 20 million and who might opt for a cloud-based software system that works with  mobile gadgets such as smartphones and tablets or plain old PCs.

The whole process is pretty simple: Sellers register online and start accepting payments on the device of their choice by sending the customers links to make payments. All payments are encrypted and no payment information is stored on the seller’s device, so as to ensure transaction safety and user privacy.

For You And Your Grandma

But it doesn’t work just for business – Emu.Me is a money messaging platform you can use instantly to send and ask for payment everywhere, to pay friends, family or just about anyone. Emu allows you to virtually “attach” cash to your emails, sort of like grandmas and grandpas around the world stick bills inside birthday cards, only swifter and more techy.

The name itself means “me to you to me”, a motto that mirrors the founders’ view of how payments should work – as simple as that.

It was founded by two brothers who spent over 20 years doing geeky stuff at Nokia, MasterCard and Motorola, and as the story goes, they got the idea came when trying to pay for some shoes took 40 minutes, and involved 5 people and a motorbike.

Although that must have made a hell of a story, payments should be a bit simpler than that – and that’s what they are trying to achieve.