FOMO Pay – Our journey so far

It was a breath-taking 3 years building up Singapore mobile payment industry from scratch; to become a multi-award winning company and a QR code payment specialist. Being part of SGQR taskforce co-led by Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Singapore’s Central Bank, FOMO Pay saw their effort in building a cashless society finally paid off with the launch of SGQR, Singapore interoperable QR code payment.

The startup was founded in 2015, is a one-stop mobile payment aggregator that helps merchants connect both online and offline mobile wallets and payment solutions. Zack Yang and Louis Liu, co-founders of FOMO Pay, gave up lucrative job offers from multinational companies after their graduation to start FOMO Pay back then. What’s even more surprising is that they were both engineering students with strong interests in FinTech space, however, with a goal in mind, they decided to give it a go.

“We are young and not married, we have nothing to lose, we just want to do something meaningful. Although it may be different from what normal graduates will choose, as long as we create a purpose, its rewarding.” Said Louis, who is also the chief executive officer of FOMO Pay.

“We took the chance and worked towards our goal. We will never regret, as long as we follow our heart. With many sleepless nights and skipping of meals, that’s the experience that will come together with being an entrepreneur, the hardship that we prepare to go through together when we started.”

Today, the company has partnered with over 10 industrial giants in the payment industry including WeChat Pay, Visa, Singtel Dash and NETS Pay, while serving several thousands of merchants. Some of the merchants include renounce brands like Fullerton Hotel, Chanel, Starhub, Club 21 and The Shilla, bringing in millions of revenues.

“It was never an easy journey when we started, no one knows what’s mobile payment was. It was so new in Singapore and we need to educate merchants one by one, convincing them to hop. This wasn’t easy. However, as time goes by, it gets easier as more people are exposed to mobile wallets, as well as Prime Minister Lee’s highlight on cashless society in last year’s National Day Rally speech gave confidence to merchants,” said Zack.

“Knowing people and getting the right people for the job is key as well, thanking his team that are fighting behind the scene in trying to push FOMO Pay to merchants as well as industry partners that trusted them. Thus, no matter how busy we (Louis and Zack) are, we will take the effort to visit trade shows and FinTech related event to know more people.”

Moving forward, FOMO Pay expects that there will be more overseas wallets popping up and some will be consolidated in local wallets as this industry gets denser. Thus, they will also try to bring in more partners and instead of competing with these wallets, FOMO Pay will be playing a complementary role to these wallets, such as multiple account management, settlement consolidation and integrated services.

Transforming into a TechFin company, FOMO Pay hopes to complement current solutions in the industry and provide merchants with more value adding services such as consumer insights. It will also provide additional details to merchants on certain customer behaviors such as timing and location of the purchase. On top of that, FOMO Pay also hopes to expand to other South-east Asia countries helping them to go cashless.

Some of the other innovation the team is considering working on includes integrating ordering system onto QR codes together with the payment system, allowing a seamless experience and help businesses save down on manpower cost.

“We believe in continuous improvement of our services and provide more value-adding services to our merchants by coming up with new and better solutions. We innovate and redesign payment functions and create valuable insights for our partners and merchants in their businesses,” said Zack.

Zack will be speaking as a panelist speaker on mobile payment, at the SCMP China Conference, on 10th October at Hilton Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.

About FOMO Pay

FOMO Pay provides one-stop QRCode Payment Solution which enables merchants to accept a full suite of new payment methods including WeChat Pay, NETSPay, mVISA, Grab Pay, Baidu Wallet, Best Pay, etc. Launched in 2016 with more than 1000 merchants acquired within a year, FOMO Pay is trusted by major companies including SPH, Marina Bay Sands, StarHub, JUMBO, Club 21, CHANEL, etc. With FOMO Pay, merchants can unlock true business potential by giving customers the payment options they prefer and adopt cashless payment easily. FOMO Pay is also sitting in MAS SGQR Taskforce to promote QR code payment and make Singapore a cashless society.