Wearable payments startup PureWrist has begun taking pre-orders for a bracelet equipped with a prepaid MasterCard account which lets its wearer make NFC payments at any contactless terminal with a tap of the wrist. The company showcased the product during its StartupPitch180 presentation at Money20/20.
The US$49 bracelet contains a reloadable prepaid card with funds loaded and stored in the account through an online portal on the company’s website. A “very small” monthly subscription fee is charged to the owner of the bracelet to keep their Gratitude account activated and functioning, and a fixed monthly portion of all proceeds from the usage of the bracelet is then shared with charities.
“There’s a special connection that we have with our jewellery — jewellery has more meaning than your typical pair of jeans or button-downed shirt,” co-founder Ari Gardiner told NFC World. “Based on my background and experience coming from the wristwatch industry, we exploited the concept that everyone wears accessories on their wrist.
“We’re about to do our pilot phase. We’ve got our manufacturing done and now we are just waiting for our final approval from the card network.”
B2B opportunities
“We would also like to eventually link up with MasterCard Digital Enablement Service (MDES) to allow customers to take their existing MasterCard accounts and transfer them onto their PureWrist bracelet in a secured environment, but that’s something on the roadmap,” Gardiner added. “We will innovate around the reaction we receive from our customers.”
“We’re actually in the midst of a couple of discussions where we would customize branding and designs for another company and they could give them out to their customers. We are working on different B2B opportunities to see what happens as we plan to simultaneously do our pilot. There are a lot of interesting things happening right now that should be developing over the next year.”
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