Concur co-founder Steve Singh’s startup Center has combined virtual card technology and traditional payment cards
to offer CenterCard, touting itself as a corporate payment system that tracks
spend against budget in real time.
“It’s a new type of corporate card that brings together that
budget and spend in a proactive way that works seamlessly at point of sale,”
said Naveen Singh, vice president of product development for the firm, and Steve Singh’s
son.
With CenterCard managers can assign multiple budgets to one
employee on Center’s desktop platform or mobile app. Those budgets are synced to
the employee’s battery-powered CenterCard, which features a power button and an
e-reader-like touch display.
To make a purchase, the employee selects the appropriate
budget displayed on the card to pre-categorize the transaction and then
completes payment at the terminal just as they would with a traditional plastic
card. The transaction is automatically recorded and deducted from the selected
budget. In this sense, CenterCard functions similarly to Coin, a digital
plastic card that allowed users to upload several credit, debit, membership and
loyalty cards into one credit card-size card. Fitbit acquired Coin last May and
ceased operations in June.
Unlike Coin, which was squarely a consumer tool, CenterCard
has corporate controls aplenty. Managers can monitor transactions instantly
from their desktop or the mobile app. The balance of each budget assigned to
the employee is displayed on the card and in their mobile app.
The card’s battery life is between 10 and 15 days before it needs
to be re-charged. Even when the battery is low, it can still be swiped or inserted
to a chip terminal like a traditional plastic credit card. Once the card is
charged and turned on, all “offline” transactions sync to the preset budget. If
the user has multiple budgets, the spend allocation may be incorrect, but users
can fix that via the mobile app.
While CenterCards target frequent travelers and spenders, they
also support infrequent users via the mobile app, which processes individual requests
for virtual card numbers for card-not-present transactions.
Security
Virtual card technology is considered safer than traditional
plastic cards because each virtual card number is typically associated with one
user and vendor, tied to a single transaction and active for a specific
timeframe. Center’s virtual card technology ties each transaction back to a
specific budget, explained Singh, but the CenterCard is configured for multiple
uses against that budget, so theft could still be an issue.
Bluetooth allows the app to detect when the card has been
disconnected from the phone for longer than two days, prompting a notification
that asks the user if the card was lost or stolen. In which case, the user can
activate a “kill switch” that shuts off the card. A manager also can shut down the
user’s card from the mobile app.
The cards have a digital element that traditional plastic
cards don’t, making them susceptible to hacking. Singh maintained that Center’s
virtual card provider, whose name he did not disclose, encrypts the card
information. Center is also exploring the use of biometrics.
Still Early Days
Center has partnerships with two banks, Washington Federal
and Central Bank of Kansas City, but has yet to secure a card network. It is currently
in talks with the major networks, Singh said, noting that the startup is also
considering whether the card should be a prepaid or credit-based product. “We’re looking into both,” Singh said.
Center will begin its beta phase within two months with “a
handful” of prospective clients. The startup is targeting small- to mid-size
companies; the annual fee for each card will be below $100.
Singh claimed the instant access to spend
against budget will allow managers to be more agile with travel and other
resources overall.
“Instead of sending a memo to cut all travel, CenterCard allows
[managers] to make strategic cuts,” Singh said. “You can cut $15,000 from research
and development’s travel budget and $10,000 from the marketing [travel] budget
and add $5,000 to the sales travel budget so you can close a couple of deals
that will grow topline revenue again.”
Steve Singh serves as Center’s executive
chairman. Naveen Singh said Steve helps Center a few times a month by advising
on business strategy and partnerships.