Take the stress out of getting together
By Teamspirit on Friday, 20 January 2017
Are you the one friend in your group who always ends up organising things? Do you ever get tired of chasing people by email, text, Messenger and WhatsApp to confirm plans? Have you paid more than your fair share of the bill for a night out or holiday because your friends haven’t got round to chipping in?
If this sounds like you, you’ll be glad to know that a new wave of fintech companies are working on ways to make life easier for you, including startup Whipit.
Whipit wants to encourage more people to take part in group activities and events by making it easier to arrange, split costs and collect contributions.
Inspired by the experiences of its founders managing teams in local football leagues, the startup wants to take the stress out of organising things like group holidays, buying concert tickets, or collecting money for presents and surprise parties.
By combining pre-authorisation and secure payment processing, Whipit lets one person pay on behalf of a group without being exposed to a big financial outlay.
Bills will – of course – always be settled, but Whipit will take the legwork out of chasing friends for their contribution with push notifications and integrated chat, so you can chill out and just watch the funds stack up.
While several other startups have focused on particular market niches – like Dice in event ticketing and Cake in restaurant payment and bill splitting – Whipit hopes that its success will lie in being open to any kind of group payment or collection users might need.
It also doesn’t want to tie users into a single interface, and has plans to continue developing its Android and Apple mobile apps as well as integrating Whipit as an online payment option directly on sites, in the same way that PayPal, Apple Pay and Android Pay have done.
In an increasingly crowded market that’s still waiting for its breakout star, Whipit is banking on packing the right combination of features into its design-led apps and online service to become the go-to provider for group fun.
Update from the Whipit team, March 2017:
“As you can see, we have a new name. We’ve also grown our team, have built a wicked new product and have exciting plans to match.
Paytogether is a new checkout option that allows you to connect your friends to any group booking so everyone can pay their share of the bill.”
