Business

Cashless tipping startup eyes expansion into UK as business booms

Strikepay co-founder Oliver Cavanagh says rise in electronic payments and new tipping laws helped it to a profit for the first time last year

Cashless tipping group Strikepay was founded during the Covid pandemic when tipping became a problem. Photograph: iStock

Ellen O’Regan
Sat Jan 6 2024 - 05:45

A cashless tipping platform established during the Covid pandemic in Ireland now has its eyes set on expansion in the UK after turning down a number of approaches itself.

Strikepay cofounder and chief executive Oliver Cavanagh says that while the idea for the tipping platform came from the pandemic, it is not “just a Covid company”, and cashless society is here to stay.

“When the pandemic happened and the world stopped carrying cash, I saw that people couldn’t tip any more, so we brought a team together, raised some money, and launched Strikepay a few months later,” he said.

The business now operates in 33,000 locations in Ireland and Britain and has processed more than €10 million in transactions.

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Almost a year since the last of pandemic restrictions were lifted, Mr Cavanagh said its customer base is growing rapidly, with clients including BWG Foods (which operates brands such as Spar, Londis and Mace), Peter Mark hair salons, department stores Brown Thomas and Arnotts, and Aldi.

“Since the end of the pandemic we’ve tripled in business, so we’ve proven that cash replacement is really a very attractive place to be. Cash isn’t coming back in any way like it used to be before the pandemic,” he said.

He said the platform also helps business owners comply with tipping laws that came into effect in December 2022. It gained 3,000 new users in the week leading up to the new laws taking effect.

Customers scan a QR code or tap their phone on an NFC (near field communication) tag to tip or donate through the online platform, using Google or Apple Pay, or via other digital cards.

They can opt to pay the additional transaction fee of between six and 86 cent as well as commission of between 3 and 6 per cent of the overall payment: otherwise, it is deducted from the tip or donation. Mr Cavanagh said nine out of 10 customers choose to cover the transaction fee.

Mr Cavanagh said the company turned a profit for the first time in 2023, two and a half years ahead of target. The most recent filed accounts for Strike Technology Ltd, which trades as Strikepay, show it made a loss of €1.13 million in 2021, and €827,081 in 2022.

Having acquired Belfast-based competitor Gratsi in 2021, Mr Cavanagh said the company hopes to soon make another acquisition outside of Ireland “and continue growing and being the leader in the space”.

“We’ve turned down two acquisition offers from companies outside of Ireland who have the same ambition to be the biggest in the world,” he said. “It will be interesting to see what happens over the next couple of years. There will probably be some consolidation in the space so the world isn’t using 20 different tipping systems.”

Ellen O'Regan

Ellen O’Regan

Ellen O’Regan is an Irish Times journalist.

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