YouPay launches after $4 million with Culture Kings on board early

Brisbane fintech YouPay launched this week with online retailer Culture Kings integrating it into its shopping cart straight away.

The service has a new take on payments innovation by letting users fill up an online shopping cart then and getting someone else to pay for it.

YouPay just finished a $4 million seed round with Sprint and is looking to offer a new way for people to make purchases this holiday season.

The startup’s CEO and founder Matt Holme said it was an easy option for those who want to do their shopping and have someone else pay for it quickly and securely.

“Shoppers simply fill their cart as usual, create a YouPay link, and then send that link to the person they would like to make the purchase,” he said.

It’s got an obvious use-case for teenagers who want to shop but have limited access to the bank of mum and dad.

For Culture Kings founder and CEO Simon Beard, YouPay also goes a step toward solving the ecommerce problem of customers filling up carts but opting not to buy anything – something that buy-now-pay-later innovations like AfterPay aimed at fixing.

“With more than $1 million of goods left in abandoned carts each day, we were looking for a simple yet effective solution that would not only reduce this but make it easier for our customers to be able to share their cart as opposed to sending a link to someone and hoping they select the right size and colour,” Beard said.

“YouPay solves a really common problem with a very simple solution.

“People can now share carts with parents, partners, and friends which is a great way to purchase and get what you want.”

YouPay also sees itself carving out a niche in corporate and charity sectors to reduce the extra admin of processing reimbursements and gift cards.

The company is heading into market with the line that it will help reduce the amount of unwanted Christmas gifts that clutter people’s houses this time of year.

But Holme also thinks there is value in YouPay as a way to share some of the financial responsibility of consumerism – especially as financial counsellors have warned of a spike in the amount of buy-now-pay-later debt among their clients.

“We’re very conscious of the need for people to spend responsibly, and while there are many options out there, we believe our shared system will help reduce the risk of debt among consumers,” he said.

“We can’t wait to get more merchants on board.”