Fit Pay Launches Kickstarter Campaign to Support Contactless Payments for Pebble Time Family of Smartwatches

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Fit Pay, Inc. today launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to support the final production and market availability of a payment smartstrap the company has developed for the Pebble Time family of smartwatches. The new smartstrap, called Pagaré™, enables Pebble Time, Pebble Time Steel and Pebble Time Round users to make secure, contactless payments at millions of retail locations worldwide.

"Pagaré™ adds a compelling new capability to the Pebble Time line up," said Michael Orlando, co-founder and chief executive officer of Fit Pay. "Pagaré™ gives Pebble Time users access to the simplest, fastest and most secure way to pay."

Pagaré™ will use Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, combined with card network tokenization to interact with point-of-sale terminals at retail locations. NFC, in place at an estimated 9 million retail locations worldwide, is becoming a ubiquitous payment acceptance technology at the POS. Pagaré™ will leverage Fit Pay's Trusted Payment Manager™ platform, which enables contactless payment capabilities on a wide range of wearable devices.

"We expect Pagaré™ will really excite our community. It's a great example of how our open platform allows Pebble to become even more useful in the everyday lives of more people," said Eric Migicovsky, founder and chief executive officer of Pebble. "Kickstarter is an amazing platform to showcase this innovative smartstrap."

Pebble made history by becoming the first smartwatch in the market to be funded with the help of Kickstarter backers. Its Kickstarter campaign for the Pebble Time raised more than $20M from nearly 80,000 backers. Pebble users, with either Android™ or iPhone® smartphones, can now add contactless payments by connecting Pagaré to the smart accessory port of the smartwatch.

Fit Pay's goal was to make Pagaré nearly indistinguishable from a traditional Pebble strap. The company worked directly with Pebble's suppliers to provide the same materials, colors and finish for the Pebble Time, Pebble Time Steel and Pebble Time Round. The result is a beautiful, high-quality accessory that adds a significant new capability. Hi-Res photos and graphics of Pagaré are available by accessing the media kit.

Pagaré Features

• FRICTIONLESS. Pagaré enables users to make phone-free transactions with the wave of a wrist. It leverages existing point-of-sale contactless technology that is already in use at millions of retail locations worldwide. 
• SECURE. With bank-level security, Pagaré protects sensitive personal data at all times, even if a Pebble is lost or stolen.
• LIMITLESS. Authentication technology allows high value transactions at the point of sale without additional authentication, where available. 
• CONVENIENT. Pagaré replaces the standard Pebble charging port with a USB connector at the end of the payment strap. No cables required, just plug in Pebble with Pagaré to any USB port to charge the smartwatch and strap.
• PERSONAL. Pagaré works with a consumer's existing credit and debit cards using a secure, tokenized and Issuer-approved solution.

Pagaré's Kickstarter page, which launched today, includes an Early Bird tier of only $49, which is $40 below the anticipated retail price of $89. Backers who contribute $199 or more receive a Pagaré and a Pebble Time smartwatch. This enables backers to pledge an amount equal to the MSRP of a Pebble Time and receive both the smartwatch and the Pagaré payment strap as a reward - a very compelling reason to back the project. Fit Pay's target for the Kickstarter campaign is $120,000. The company anticipates shipping Pagaré in mid-2016. 

About Fit Pay, Inc.

Based in San Francisco, California, Fit Pay, Inc. is led by former CyberSource and Visa, Inc. executives with more than 20 years of payment platform and identity authentication domain expertise. Fit Pay's platform provides a frictionless experience allowing consumers to conduct highly secure, contactless payment transactions. Fit Pay offers an entirely new way for transacting payments using a wearable device. Find Fit Pay and Pagaré on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

About Pebble

Based in Redwood City, California, Pebble builds wearable technology that enhances, simplifies, and blends into our lives. Since making crowdfunding history in 2012, Pebble put wearable technology on the map and has sold more than 1 million smartwatches across the globe. In 2015, the company launched Pebble Time, Pebble Time Steel and Pebble Time Round providing smartwatches for every type of user whether they're busy travelers, fitness enthusiasts, fashionistas or just lovers of cool technology. Pebble smartwatches support both Android™ and iPhone® smartphones and also feature an open platform for developers to make awesome new apps or watchfaces. Learn more at Pebble.com.

Contact:
Chris Orlando
Orlando & Associates
[email protected]
(760) 468-7273

Video - http://origin-qps.onstreammedia.com/origin/multivu_archive/PRNA/ENR/330516-pagare-kickstarter-final-hd.mp4

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160208/330512

SOURCE Fit Pay, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.pebble.com