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TWST: We would like to begin with a brief historical sketch of Dexit and a
picture of the things you are doing at the present time.
Mr. Campbell: Dexit was incorporated in October 2001, so the company is about
five years old. The vision at the time we incorporated was to create a
ubiquitous payment service using RFID technology to enable consumers to purchase
goods at retail locations quickly and conveniently. So there is a strong
merchant and consumer value proposition there. Again, the focus was replacing
cash at the point of sale, as cash payments take a long time & and cash can be
dirty and kind of clumsy. It's all about creating speed and convenience for the
consumer. The company spent the first couple of years building out the business
plans, securing our lead partners and raising capital, and then we launched in
the market about three years ago in the Toronto area in Canada. We have been in
the market for almost three years. We have about 450 merchant locations in the
Toronto area at this point, with a little over 50,000 consumers signed up to the
service. TWST: Would you tell us how it works?
Mr. Campbell: First of all, we need to get merchants signed up for the Dexit
Service. We have worked closely with our business partner, Bell Canada, to do
this over the last couple years. So the merchants sign up and get the equipment
installed in their locations and set up a merchant account. At the same time, we
and our business partners go out and market to consumers to sign up, and we
establish accounts for consumers when they sign up. We also give them RFID tags.
It's a little tag that hangs on your key chain and has a computer chip in it.
This tag is linked to a prepaid account that we establish in the consumer's
name. The consumer signs up, they deposit money into the account. They can do
this through many methods & through electronic bill payment & it's like paying a
bill through Web banking. They can hand cash over-the-counter at numerous
locations or they can have the system take money directly from their bank
account or directly charge their credit card. So the key is getting the money
into the account and then they can go and transact.
If they go to a merchant location that accepts Dexit and they want to buy a
coffee, for example, and it costs $2, the dollar amount comes up on the reader
at the point of sale on the counter. The consumer touches the tag and they get
an indication on the reader that the transaction has gone through, which usually
takes about two seconds. So you just tap your tag, and away you go. It can speed
up the lineups for the merchants and it's simple and convenient for the
consumer.
Tickers included in this excerpt: DXT:TSX
For more information call (212) 952 7433. The
Wall Street Transcript does not endorse any of the comments made by interviewees, and does
not make stock recommendations.
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