South Africa-based mobile payments startup GustPay recently held its second cashless event dubbed the “Grim Furdango 2.0”, in partnership with RAMfest and Boom.fm to refine its Event Intelligence product.
The event, which also marked the launch of Gust Pay for BlackBerry and Gust Finder for iOS, saw around 900 students and Stellenbosch locals introduced to Gust’s cashless event technology, named Event Intelligence, on the night that featured music bands such as Fokofpolisiekar and The Very Wicked.
“It’s a simple, safe and frictionless payment. The concept has been proven with a few major music festivals in Europe over the last summer season. Gust wants to be the first choice for local event companies as the trend grows in South Africa,” says Joe Botha, one of the founders of GustPay.
Attendees could pay with their smartphone using the Gust Pay app or with a Gust PayTag as it runs on iOS, Android and BlackBerry phones. In addition, Gust PayTags are NFC wristbands, used for cashless payments, access control and social media interactions.
The Event Intelligence wristbands are quite “nifty” in that they are scanned at the door for access control and if a person has their tag linked to Facebook, they get to see their event Check-in added to their timeline as they enter the event.
“Gust offers a full service package, including logistics, payments, interactive elements and data analytics,” Botha added.
Event goers have the option to load their Gust wallets with Credit Card, EFT or cash. Buying a drink is as simple as swiping the NFC wristband. The user’s profile photo and balance shows up on an iPad running Gust’s PayPoint software and the payment is confirmed by a second swipe. A third swipe adds a tip for the bar staff.
“People love the idea of just paying with a wristband and not bothering with a wallet at parties. They want quick and easy event entry, fast bar service and they like the fun elements we’ve built around social media,” continued Botha.
Gust Finder and Point of Sale
Gust also launched a new website this week, which now includes their location services app, Gust Finder. The app helps users find and navigate to nearby Gust merchants. It also offers a 2D map view, detailed list view and an Augmented Reality view.
Gust also announced that its PayPoint app, which usually runs on an iPad, has been improved to let merchants import their stock databases so they can use it as a touch screen point of sale system.
“The next step is to let our merchants offer weekly specials to Gust Pay users and to include these specials in our Gust Finder app. This gives our users a mobile payment experience with location based special offers,
“We set out to build a payment system which we would want to use. It’s very much designed with the user in mind. The point of sale side of Gust will probably only be available in Stellenbosch for text few months, but it’s a great environment to build and test products like these,” Botha said.
