PassKit, the Hong Kong-based mobile wallet platform startup has secured $1.2 million series A funding. The investor details were undisclosed.
PassKit provides a cloud based passbook designer application with which travel companies or customers can design a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) passbook friendly app for iOS and Android devices.
Companies that are into the business of offering mobile coupons, event/concert tickets, boarding passes, gift cards, loyalty cards, reward cards can take advantage of the passbook designer platform.
PassKit was founded in June 2012 and their focus seems to be the Asia market.
The shift from physical boarding passes/tickets to digital was accelerated with Apple's Passbook app that was launched last year. Passbook has obvious impacts in travel industry.
Various travel brands have adopted Passbook in their ticket generation process, including American Airlines, Lufthansa, ANA, Malaysian Airlines, Cleartrip, Booking.com etc.
If you haven't integrated your app with Passbook, not to worry. Passkit acts as a middle layer between your app and Apple's Passbook.
If you are running a small travel business or generating uniform coupons/tickets for your customers, then you do not even have to integrate your app with Passbook. You can manage the ticket/pass/coupon generation with PassKit's passbook designer.
On the other hand, if you need your website/app to automatically generate a Passbook friendly boarding pass/coupon/ticket, then you will have to integrate (coding involved) your system with PassKit's API.
We designed a passbook friendly boarding pass for a hypothetical airline - Tnooz Airlines. We were able to design (no coding) a boarding pass that complies to all standards of Passbook and supports all of its additional features -
- ability to push an update later
- display information in the lock screen
- display information in customer's mobile depending on their location
- add multiple languages into a single pass
The passbook designer was simple to use, self-explanatory and it works! We were able to download the boarding pass into Passbook and it also showed up in lock screen (one of our test scenario).
PassKit's competitors include WalletKit, an India-based startup that graduated recently from Dave Mc Clure's 500 Startups. WalletKit was founded in 2012 by 23-year old Chennai-based duo Kevin William David and Ramakanth Dorai.
Similar to PassKit's passbook designer platform, WalletKit also has a cloud based designer application.
In both the platforms, the generated passes can be distributed via email, within the app, or through a custom link to customers.
As part of the 500 Startups incubation, WalletKit moved their base from India to San Francisco to cater to the global market.