Jonathan Wall's first attempt to tackle the offline payment experience didn't go exactly as he had hoped.
Wall (above left) was one of two founding engineers behind Google Wallet, a mobile payment platform that launched in 2011 and promised to let users tap and pay for items in stores. Google Wallet initially struggled to gain widespread adoption due to the reluctance of carriers and businesses to embrace the NFC technology that Wallet depended on. For Wall, however, there was an even more basic problem: the Google Wallet team turned its focus to the wrong thing.
"There was kind of a tectonic shift even before we made it to market," Wall told Mashable in a recent interview. "There were a lot of PayPal folks that saw the payment itself as being the prize rather than the data... The opportunity we were hoping to pursue was the untapped potential of the data in the retailer's walls and using it to help the retailer."
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Wall left Google in March 2012 along with Google Wallet product lead Marc Freed-Finnegan (above right) and together the two worked on launching a startup more in line with that original vision. The end result is Index, a startup that plans to help bricks-and-mortar stores learn more about their customers and better personalize the retail experience to each individual shopper.
Rather than rely on hardware like Google Wallet did originally, Index is working to integrate software into the point of sale at stores. For example, Index might help stores adopt digital receipts for customers and include personalized recommendations for other possible purchases they might make. Index also aims to help retailers add personalization elements to their apps and send out customized greetings and offers to the phones of customers who enter their stores.
Index announced Tuesday that it has raised $7 million in a Series A round led by Innovation Endeavors, which was founded by Google chairman Eric Schmidt, as well as Khosla Ventures and 819 Capital. The San Francisco-based startup has brought on other employees from Google and counts advisors from national retailers including Whole Foods, Burger King and J. Crew.
While the idea for Index was certainly informed by their experience working at Google, Wall says the team was also inspired by Amazon and its ability to understand customers' purchasing histories and preferences. "What we observed is that this isn't really the case in the offline world," he said. "When you walk into a store, you are relatively anonymous." At least for now.
Image: Index