Mobile wallet
Such are his boyish looks that you would be forgiven for thinking that Bevan Ducasse (24) was a GQ model rather than the entrepreneur who has co developed a mobile payment option that has caught the attention of some of SA’s top retailers.
Ducasse conceived and – along with his “genius” partner Basie Kok – developed wiWallet, which enables one to use a cellphone to make payments at point of sale terminals, much as credit card machines do, but more simply and securely. Other mobile payment options do exist, including Wizzit and Fundamo, which powers MTN Banking, but they still rely on a cash card for payment at the point of sale.
BP and Pick n Pay have already signed up for wiWallet, while other retailers, including Spar, Woolworths and Mr Price, have expressed interest. Fundamo, the pioneer of mobile payment technology in SA, is concluding a deal to license the technology.
Ducasse hails from rural KwaZulu Natal and won an “allrounder” scholarship to Hilton Boys High School. Aside from being handy on the sports field, he was first trumpeter in the school’s Dixieland jazz band. Armed with a BCom from Stellenbosch, he worked first at business solutions company UCS Solutions, which today is a 50% shareholder in Ducasse’s company wiWallet.
Then he joined start-up mobile marketing company Mobilitrix. At this point an idea was “cooking”. Since his school days Ducasse has kept a “new business ideas” file. Fed-up with the payment environment and his cluttered wallet, he set out to find a way to simplify his confusing array of payment options. wiWallet, which is being launched in August, was the result.
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