The developer of "smart" credit cards Plastc collected pre-orders for $ 9 million and declared bankruptcy

People who invest in startups on various crowdfunding platforms know that all this is akin to playing the lottery game. Some companies work honestly, fulfilling their obligations and releasing the promised product, even if it is later than planned. Others are pure fraudsters who collect money and leave without saying goodbye. Well, and others do not count their own strengths and capabilities and suffer the wreck of their ship of luck long before the crew sees the shore. These third - a hybrid of the first and second options.

This is the type of startup Plastc, which in 2014 announced its intention to create a universal card that can accommodate digital copies of 20 user bank cards, the latter being able to switch between the cards stored in the device’s memory when paying for a product or service. This idea seemed interesting to thousands of people, and in a short time the startup was able to raise $ 9 million.

Several tens of thousands of people made pre-orders for the goods, and they were ready to pay $ 155 for one smart card. No wonder - after all, these cards were supposed to support the NFC and EMV standards, and you can charge them, as reported, “by air”, without wires.
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In total, according to the developers, they received 80,000 pre-orders. But soon after the funds were raised, problems began with the implementation of the project and compliance with the plans. So, the cards should have been sent to buyers in 2016. The shipping date was initially moved from April to August or September. Then - again moved, ostensibly because of problems with the supplier of various components of their devices from Asia. The company did not name the exact delivery date, telling about plans to start shipping devices at the end of the year.

A little later, the head of the company Ryan Marquis (Ryan Marquis) said that a small group of the “elect” should receive the cards in 2016, but everyone else can use their purchase no earlier than 2017.


Head of the company Ryan Marquis apologizes to his customers in a video posted on Facebook

People who have invested their money began to suspect that something was wrong. “Stop lying to your loyal customers that this expired product will be shipped,” said one of those who pre-ordered. After the news about the next postponement of the shipment date, he and many other depositors demanded a refund. They are tired of waiting, and they indignantly rejected the company's proposals to “first send a T-shirt, and then cards”. Feeling deceived, buyers said they were “waiting for their cards, not stupid T-shirts.”


This year no one saw the cards. Well, now the company has declared bankruptcy with the imminent closure of its office. According to the management, this decision was caused by the lack of funds for the implementation of the project plans. Employees of the company have already been laid off, respectively, discontinued customer support through any channels of communication, including the telephone.

The lack of funds, according to representatives of the Plastc team, is caused by the failure of the two main investors to continue working. It was expected that at the end of February of this year, the company will receive another $ 3.5 million to launch production of smart cards. But investors stopped financing a startup, and the only thing left to do was to shut down. Support was promised by another investor who wanted to invest almost $ 7 million. But this option did not work either - the prospective partner also abandoned his plans.



The project team states that “everything-everything” was ready to launch the production of cards, but due to bad investors, this turned out to be impossible. The management also says that the company “did its best” to make the smart card a reality. Of course, in this regard, the desire diverged from reality: instead of the promised, the company did everything to upset and offend its customers. In addition, no one will return the money to them, since the company is bankrupt. But who is there to blame for it all - the people who made the pre-order, this does not care much.



By the way, Plastc is not the only startup that prepared smart bank cards. Now several similar companies are implementing similar projects. But, probably, they have less confidence than before, so finding funding will be more difficult. And in general - is it really all we need such universal cards?