Startup-Spotlight
Front runners in the evolution of transit payments How can we make transit payments simple? That was the question that sparked Littlepay. We founded our company in 2016 when the migration to a cashless economy was well underway in many countries. Transit, the largest micropayments vertical, was shifting away from cash toward contact-free payment methods, and we saw an opportunity to be instrumental to that movement. Transport for London’s contactless payment system was the success story everyone was talking about. Passengers had been quick to switch to using contactless bank cards to pay for travel instead of paper tickets or Oyster cards. They found it easy to reach for their card and enjoyed spending less time queuing for tickets or top-ups. Driven by convenience, the habit of tapping to pay, not just across the capital’s transport network, but also in shops and cafes, was taking root. We set out to create a platform that offers the same seamless payment experience as Transport for London’s system without the need for hefty investment. Our solution is a cloud-based payment gateway that handles the intricacies of payment processing in a secure environment, connecting to a range of card reading devices to offer transit agencies flexible options. The modular architecture makes Littlepay cost-effective and faster to deploy than bespoke alternatives. We knew we had a great product, but it has still been satisfying and humbling to receive such a positive response from transit agencies and ticketing technology providers. In 2017, working with our partner Ticketer to provide tap-to-pay solutions, we onboarded our first 24
Littlepay merchants. In our first two years, we rolled out contactless across nearly 10,000 buses in the UK. We now provide contactless payment processing to almost 200 agencies and operators in Europe, and we have multiple international projects launching in the coming months.
Keeping it simple When you tap-to-pay for travel, it feels effortless. You wave your card and board a vehicle, and later you see a payment taken from your account. In the cloud, our payment gateway manages a complex process, which might include verification and authorisation, price calculation with an external fare engine, deny list management, aggregation, capping adjustment and settlement. The only aspect our customers have to handle themselves is settingup fare structures using Littlepay Control, our merchant portal. We’ve made sure that it’s simple to configure and test product rules and monitor transaction data. Many operators use fare aggregation and capping as a way to reduce their card scheme fees for payment processing. Passengers benefit from this, too, paying a single fare for travel within the capping period, often saving money.
