Start-up Slyp wins backing from big four banks for digital receipts technology

The stars have aligned for Slyp, with backing from all big four banks in Australia, as the start-up seeks to raise tens of millions to fund a bid to go big in receipts

Slyp co-founder and chief executive Paul Weingarth, left, and CFO Ashley Davies.

The stars have aligned for Slyp, with backing from all big four banks in Australia, as the start-up seeks to raise tens of millions to fund a bid to go big in receipts.

The company, based in Sydney, offers technology to allow bank customers access to their shopping receipts through bank apps rather than as scraps of paper from a retailer.

The company is recruiting aggressively, targeting a team of 70, as it revs up its series A funding round.

Without putting a ceiling on it, Slyp chief executive Paul Weingarth said he was hoping for something in the “tens of millions”, noting many retail investors had been asking if they could put money in for months.

“The banks have been great supporters of ours,” he said.

The potential market for Slyp is the entire retail sector, with the company charging banks a subscription fee and retailers a per transaction fee.

Core to the success of Slyp are the deals it cuts with the banks and retailers, and the technological integration with point-of-sale terminal manufacturers.

The current system integrates with in-store retail terminals, and offers capacity to record e-receipts for those that pay in cash, but Mr Weingarth said they were also exploring integration with online retailers.

“The opportunity for Slyp Australia alone is in the billions.”

NAB recently moved to integrate Slyp technology with its bank app, while Chemist Warehouse also signed a deal to offer the e-receipts to shoppers at its 460 stores.

Scentre Group, owners of Westfield, is also a partner of Slyp, with more on the horizon, according to Mr Weingarth, as the start-up sets its eyes on the busy Christmas shopping period.

“We’ve got a backlog of merchants that are activating at the moment,” he said.

“There’s several large ones that are trying to get on before Christmas.”

To bolster its fundraising efforts, Slyp recently brought on CFO Ashley Davies, who joins after spending 3½ years as Intuit’s head of finance.

Mr Davies and Mr Weingarth share a background in working at PayPal. The series A funding comes on the back of sporadic capital raisings that have reaped almost $12m so far.

Mr Davies said he hoped to close the funding round by the end of the year.

“The growth the business has seen since officially launching late last year is staggering and it’s clear there’s a lot still to come. Implementing steadfast financial processes and commercial modelling will set us up for even bigger capital raises when the time comes.”