Paybook Pioneers New Era Of Financial Transparency
Startup focuses on addressing untapped Latin America market, launches two new products
AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- For Paybook CEO and Co-Founder Gerardo Treviño, trying to get a comprehensive view of his finances has always been a constant source of frustration.
"Like most people, I have a fairly good idea of where I stand financially at a general level, are things going well or not so much; but I can't say at any given time precisely how good or bad, and why. Add to that having multiple bank accounts and credit cards, and it's just a nightmare" said Treviño. "That was the lightbulb moment. With Paybook, our goal was to create powerful, yet intuitive financial management tools that could streamline financial processes for individuals, groups, businesses, and organizations alike and ultimately help them make smarter decisions."
The result of Treviño's spark of inspiration was Paybook, a fintech startup headquartered in the heart of Austin's popular, bungalow-style, bar-lined Rainey Street.
A longtime entrepreneur who discovered his passion for technology at age 12, sold his first lines of code at 16, and his first company by 25, Treviño launched his latest venture not from the prototypical startup garage, but from the Mexican coastal resort town of Playa del Carmen, where he and his team embarked upon a year-long residency.
Just a stone's throw from the beach, Paybook's "Dev House" -- as the team refers to it -- served as a stimulating, collaborative workshop environment that would spark a wellspring of creativity and sow the seeds of what would eventually become the company's flagship products: Glass and Sync.
A data aggregation and expense management platform, Glass delivers a simplified way to track and manage personal, business, and social finances by bringing all accounts under one roof.
"Glass imports financial data each day directly from your financial accounts, so you no longer need to manually log transactions. All financial activity is kept securely up to date in one place so you can stay on budget and make informed decisions when they matter most," Treviño explained.
The app also allows users to share and publish financial data. Whether it's between friends privately sharing expenses or a government entity or nonprofit organization publishing their expenditures to the public, Glass was designed to promote fiscal transparency and rewrite the rules on how social finances are handled.
When the team first attempted launching Glass, there was a notable lack of tools available that would connect it with the banks in Mexico and LATAM. To solve that problem, the team created what would become their first widely available product, Sync: an API designed to provide financial data initially from the banks, credit cards, IRS and utilities in Mexico and LATAM. Sync currently supporting Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, and Chile, Sync will support 5 more countries in LATAM and USA during 2017.
With Sync, software developers benefit by gaining the ability to deliver account connectivity to their customers. Businesses benefit from a reduction in time, resources, and costs of automation; improved data quality and up-to-date information; and a solution that seamlessly integrates into their existing tech stack.
Additional features include anti-fraud protection, identity and income verification, and digital invoice generation with government required digital stamps.
The boom in electronic invoicing, or "e-invoicing", in numerous countries around the world has been a key determinant in Paybook's initial focus on serving what they call a massive, untapped fintech market in Latin America.
"Sync's e-invoice generation service is perfectly aligned with the growing e-invoice exchange trend taking place in Latin America -- not only providing third-party app developers an easy way to offer that service to their customers, but Glass business users can also take advantage of it as well," said Treviño.
Treviño adds that when you factor in high unbanked populations, weak consumer banks, and broad mobile phone usage, emerging markets such as Latin America are ripe for FinTech disruptions. Precisely why the team has trained their aim on Mexico today, followed by a global expansion delivering easy money-management solutions across currencies and borders in the days ahead.
The Paybook team encourages those interested in learning more about Glass and Sync to click here for additional insight.
For more information about this story, contact:
Gerardo Treviño
[email protected]
512.808.7475
www.paybook.com
SOURCE Paybook
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