Then and now — a short summary of the development
How it began in 2015 — our founding vision
In 2015 we looked at the market and were deeply disappointed by the available cryptocurrency apps and mobile wallets back then. The wallets on the market were complicated and built for experts. How could that ever work? We saw an urgent need to develop better crypto wallets and easier payments systems with an user-friendly interface and modern UI/UX design.
Shortly after our mission became to develop products that streamline blockchain payment technologies into the mainstream in order to give everybody access to this amazing technology.
Founding team and the shift of vision
We started with a founding team of three and shared the same vision to build easier crypto wallets as well as onboard merchants and corporations to accept crypto payments. Within the next 15 months the founder’s visions about the company and the applied business development, technical roadmap and business strategy changed. At the end, we had to realize that our founder’s visions among us three where no longer aligned and we decided to move forward separately with our own projects. Co-founder Christoph Hering remained and and is now dedicated more than ever to deliver the products.
Today the products are more focused on SME and financial institutional partners and are designed to follow regulatory requirements such as know your customer and anti money laundering prevention.
First crowdfunding in 2016 — getting our baby on the way
In August 2016 we collected an equivalent amount of 1100 BTC in our pre-ico. We sold 6.5% of the total tokens in the pre-ico. The rest remains in cold storage with our escrow partners. The funds have been raised to develop a multi cryptocurrency point of sale platform and a payment messenger that will make crypto management easier. The pre-ico funds are escrowed and 100% dedicated for the development of the products:
- A coin agnostic point of sale platform for crypto (Payger Wallet)
- A multi-currency wallet combined with a social messenger. (Payger App).
The collected funds are dedicated to the development of the products and any other use is forbidden according to our own company guidelines.
Investments — a great product needs time and money
In 2016 and 2017 we invested roughly 85% of the funds in development, salaries, marketing and legal. We spent most of our money on product development costs and paying our development teams. Since we are located in Germany we have to pay higher employee, capital gain and corporate taxes than in other countries. Since we are working with bitcoin and other crypto assets we work closely with tax accountants, lawyers and business consultants to develop regularly compliant products.
Our company expenses for 2016 and 2017 are split among:
- 4.10% Travel expenses (conferences, exhibitions)
- 6.91% Other expenses (IT servers, office supply)
- 8.85% Marketing expenses (PR, social media, videos)
- 3.59% Office (office rent)
- 13.98% Taxes (social security, capital gain)
- 17.89% Business administration, legal and tax support
- 44.69% Development and salaries
The company remaining funds are sufficient enough for the current development. We are keeping the costs as low as possible to invest into what matters — the development of Payger.
Development roadmap — a star is in the making
We are developing products around the most precious thing in your life. Your time and money. We are dedicated to deliver stable, secure and easy to use software that protects what is most valuable for our users. For 2018 we at Payger aim to achieve the following goals:
- We focus on an omni channel approach and aim to become an regulated blockchain payment service provider.
- We focus on developing the Payger Wallet (web wallet) further and add new features.
- We are constantly developing the Payger App (mobile wallet) and plan the launch for fall 2018.
Our first version of Payger is in alpha status and will be released in Q2 2018. Moreover, the first Payger version is a mvp for function and process testing as well as a showcase for strategic partners. In addition, we are already working on more features of Payger such as:
- Payger API and Merchant Services which are also in development
- First Payger Plug-in for Woocommerce, which is used by more than 70% of global ecommerce platforms, is in development
Following our vision our goal for 2019 is to create a payment ecosystem for the leading crypto currencies. We believe in Payger as there is a strong market demand for solid, regulated payment solutions with stable crypto currencies. Payger is on a good roadmap and growing fast. Over the next few months we are looking forward to keep you in the loop about our latest new partnerships, projects and product releases.
Visit our website at https://Payger.com and sign up for our newsletter to learn more about our other exciting products to be released in 2018!
This article has been published on https://medium.com/@PaygerHQ/payger-the-new-payment-platform-for-your-favourite-digital-assets-2a5757f6e56f