Play2Pay wants to help consumers reduce their cell phone bills – by playing games.
The Miami-based company announced it raised $13 million to grow the concept in a Series A financing round led by San Francisco venture capital firm TeleSoft Partners. Several individual investors participated in the round, including former AT&T Vice Chairman Ralph de la Vega; former Reuters CEO Tom Glocer; Madison Dearborn Partners co-founder Jim Perry and Kris Canekeratne, the CEO of Massachusetts-based information technology company Virtusa.
The new capital will support Play2Pay's product development and new hiring, said founder and CEO Brian Boroff. The firm currently has 27 employees, with 15 based in the South Florida area.
Play2Pay enables mobile phone users to reduce their bills by an average of 30% by playing games, watching videos and completing daily challenges, special offers and surveys. The company reports it converts that attention and engagement into a currency that can be redeemed for bill payments.
Boroff said the firm's revenue spiked by nearly 300% between June 2020 and June 2021 as more customers sought savings and brands explored innovative ways to engage with consumers.
“Not only did our partners see 25% of Play2Pay users generating revenue daily on the platform, we offered our brand and service provider partners a new level of data and analytics that allowed them to customize offerings and strengthen customer relationships," he added.
The platform is available to more than 100 million mobile subscribers across the U.S., United Kingdom, Mexico, Brazil and Indonesia. Mobile phone users spent more time than ever on their devices during the Covid-19 pandemic, a trend that helped carriers such as AT&T and Cricket boost subscriber engagement and revenue through their partnership with Play2Pay, the company reports.
Advertisers are anticipated to double down on mobile app advertising to get the attention of their smartphone-obsessed consumers. Globally, the in-app advertising spending is anticipated to reach $201 billion this year, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), a network of media and tech firms focused on digital ad marketing.
Telesoft Partners founder Arjun Gupta described the Play2Pay model as a "triple-whammy-winning" experience that could be extended to industries beyond mobile carriers.
“Play2Pay is at the sweet spot of the intersection of mobile payments, monetization and gaming,” he said. "[It's] a win for brands and a win for service providers."
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