Singaporean startup working on making mobile payments using sound

Jeddy Genrwot October 26, 2016

Less than a minute

The Aimazing team at Slush Singapore in September 2016. From left: CTO, Kong Yi Kai, COO, Yar Hong Chiong, and CEO, Jun Ting. Photo credit: Jun Ting.

A Singaporean startup, Aimazing is a step closer to commercializing their new sound technology solution for mobile payments.

Aimazing’s goal is to offer the mobile payments market a more accessible option than the near field communication (NFC) technology currently in use.

The startup’s solution has carried it to a top 30 finish in Slush Singapore 2016, which was held in September. It also earned them a place in season four of Channel NewsAsia’s Start-UP program.

“Phones are made to produce sound,” said COO and co-founder Yar Hong Chiong. “Using sound, anyone with a smartphone can have access to mobile wallets.”

To send payment via Aimazing, a user’s device plays a data-encrypted sound code to the merchant’s device. This only requires a microphone and speakers on both ends.

NFC technology, on the other hand, requires a chip in the user’s smartphone and a specialised reader at the point of sale. Additionally, Apple’s operating system restricts third parties from easily accessing and developing software with the iPhone’s NFC chip.

Eventually, Aimazing hopes to work with existing third party mobile wallets in Singapore, offering them a bigger market beyond NFC smartphone users.

Source: Tecnisia