LevelUp’s Next Steps: White-Label Service, POS Integration

With 300,000 users, 3,800 merchants, and $4 million in transactions per month, LevelUp has seen expansive growth since its launch a year and a half ago. PYMNTS.com caught up with John Valentine, vice president of sales at LevelUp, to discuss some of the company’s new partnerships, their white-label offerings, and the progress they’ve made since winning our Best Newcomer Innovator Award in August.

LevelUp’s Next Steps: White-Label Service, POS Integration

After winning PYMNTs.com’s Best Newcomer Innovator Award this past August, Michael Hagan, LevelUp’s COO, said his company’s mission was simple: to win the “Most Disruptive” award in 2013.

Two months later early indicators suggest LevelUp will be well positioned to challenge for that title.

To catch up with the mobile POS and loyalty startup, PYMNTS.com spoke with John Valentine, vice president of sales, to discuss LevelUp’s new merchant deals, its white-label offering, the NFC vs. QR code debate and much more.

LevelUp’s made no shortage of headlines as of late. Recent partnerships with Micros, POSitouch, Dinerware have brought its merchant acquiring and POS integration into the spotlight, and Valentine says LevelUp is adding hundreds of merchants and thousands of users each month.

Right now, Valentine claims that LevelUp serves around 300,000 users and 3,800 merchants, and processes over $4 million in LevelUp transactions per month. As more companies decide to fully integrate with the LevelUp POS platform, those number should increase.

“When LevelUp is integrated with a merchant’s point-of-sale, the transactions are faster, the transactions are easier and more seamless both for the cashier or waiter and the customer who’s using LevelUp,” Valentine said.

He also noted that while using LevelUp with a traditional POS system is effective, full integration allows for an even better experience for merchant and consumer alike.

“When the integration happens at a point of sale, the merchant will simply ring up the order, hit total, you’d scan LevelUp, get the receipt in your phone and walk away.”

In addition to the headlines LevelUp generated through some of its new partnerships, the company also made waves by announcing its new white-label offering in September. According to Valentine, LevelUp first got the idea to offer such a service when working with sweetgreen, an organic and health foods chain based in Washington, D.C.

“It donned on us that this is a huge untapped market for LevelUp, not just in terms of incremental revenue on top of the advertising revenue we drive, but it’s also a great way to tie us deeper with the businesses that we care about the most,” Valentine said.

“We see this as a huge, massive opportunity for us. We’re going back to a lot of the large enterprises who we’ve already pitched LevelUp to and who we’re in conversations with and pitched the white label option, and the response has been fantastic.”

Valentine noted that LevelUp’s white-label option is best suited for business with 15-plus locations, as smaller companies likely lack the revenue to have their own app built for them.

“The LevelUp platform works incredibly well for all the small-and-medium sized business we already have in system, but this white-label option is a fantastic way for larger brands to work with us, to avail themselves of his huge LevelUp community and also to create a very custom experience.”

To hear more Valentine on LevelUp’s white-label service, QR codes vs. NFC and more, listen to the full podcast below.

   


John Valentine

Vice President of Sales, LevelUp

As Vice President of Sales at LevelUp, John Valentine is in charge of launching and managing all cities on LevelUp’s mobile payment system, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, DC, LA, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle. Since it’s launch in July 2011, LevelUp’s mobile application has surpassed 300,000 users, 3,800 merchants, and $4MM in transactions per month. John earned a J.D. from Villanova University and a B.A. in Economics from Tufts University. John lives in Boston, MA, and hopes his fantasy football team can finish the season injury-free.