Innovative Australian start-up Bountye is among the first to launch with Android Pay in Australia. The move is set to catapult the buying and selling app to even greater heights after only a year on the market.
The young start-up was selected alongside tech veterans to be one of ten apps to take part in Google’s Australian market launch of Android Pay.
Bountye has been disrupting traditional online marketplaces via an engaging interface that removes the complexity of selling pre-loved stuff. It is customised to suit the location, community involvement and personal interests of its users. It is also the only Australian marketplace which allows customers to sell their pre-owned goods and donate the proceeds to charities or local fundraising communities. Now, Bountye will be joining the likes of MenuLog, OZSALE, The Iconic, GoCatch, Deliveroo, Clipp and EatNow.com.au to launch with their Android Pay integration.
Android’s high penetration in the Australian market made it an obvious choice for Google to launch their digital wallet. Android Pay allows users to make one touch in-app purchases so there’s no need to enter credit card details or delivery information.
The product is also being rolled out via a whole host of large retailers which will feature contactless payment terminals for customers with Android phones.
Pali Bhat, Senior Director, Product Management, Google, commented: “We’re excited to bring the simplicity and security of mobile payments to Android users in Australia. Using Android Pay is more secure — and much faster — than rummaging through your wallet for a plastic card. Starting today, Aussie shoppers will be able to use Android Pay at almost 900,000 contactless payment terminals across Australia.”
What does this mean for Bountye?
In addition to its well-established iOS user base, Bountye’s newly launched Android app and integration of Android Pay will help them to tap into Google’s smartphones dominant 53% share of the local market.
“Building frictionless pathways to purchase for online communities is core to Bountye’s growth strategy, so partnering with tech-giant, Google to support the release of Android Pay was a no brainer,” says Senior Software Engineer, Ricardo Lamas.
“We have worked closely with Google to integrate the payment gateway into our marketplace. It’s a slick, secure product that will guarantee trust and safety for our users.”
Together, Bountye and Android Pay make second-hand buying and selling online safe and easy. “Every level of the app takes into account the safety and security of our users. Trust is the main currency of our marketplace,” stated Asim Brown, Bountye Founder and MD.
“This is what differentiates us from our competitors and it’s the reason we saw Android Pay as a perfect solution for our platform. With fast growth in Australia and a recent launch in the U.S, the launch of Bountye for Android and Android Pay promises to boost Bountye’s already strong momentum.”
“What next for Bountye?” Anthill asked. “Having gained momentum from our trials, we’re doubling down on our partnerships with schools and charities,” Asim told us.
“We’ll be partnering with other apps who already have established relationships with schools. Our sales team will be increasing to help manage growth as we have a backlog of new charities to onboard.
“Having received a tonne of valuable feedback from our users, we’ve been working on an amazing redesign of the app where you’ll see a whole lot of new features. For instance, our peer leaders will have more autonomy to manage their communities and individual user experiences will become even more personalised.”
What else has Bountye been up to lately?
Having worked at eBay, founder Asim Brown realised that that the C2C marketplace was out of step with technology and the end user.
He founded Bountye with an aim of bringing back the feeling of community to e-commerce where friends, connections and groups of like-minded people sell and buy items worth talking about.
It allows users to build trust amongst their community through every interaction with features such as buyer and seller ratings, escrow services, comments and chat functions. All users also must have verified profiles, complete with real names and photos.
“These past ten months we performed community trials to move Bountye to the next stage in our long-term strategy,” Asim revealed.
“We wanted to give users a purpose for buying and selling the stuff they no longer needed to create what we call “meaningful commerce.”
“With online retail sales clocking in at $19.2 billion and growing at 10.6% year-on-year consumers have a lot of material wealth, and many of these new items never even get unwrapped—like that dress bought from ASOS that was just a little too small and gets stored away with the tags still on.
“Bountye is tapping into this store of unused goods in Australia to reduce wastage and help people donate to causes by parting with their pre-loved things instead of their cash.
“We have already partnered with 15 major charities, 20 schools, Churches, RSL’s and Universities. We give their communities members the ability to sell pre-loved goods and donate proceeds to a cause close to their heart, whether that be their own P&C, their local RSL, or the Church they’ve been attending for years. By donating the proceeds from their sales to their favorite certified charity or church, users also receive a tax-deductible receipt for their donation and buyers get to feel good about where their money is going!
“During our trials over 30,000 people download Bountye and our user base is growing at 24% month-on-month.”
The company raised $600,000 via private investors and partnerships and also completed a second capital raise for $600,000. Asim further disclosed that they have recently opened a new round of funding and are in the process of raising $1 million for a pre-series A round.
