Person-to-person payments startup Tip.ly has launched a new service for tipping: Just snap a picture of the tip’s recipient and Tip.ly will handle the rest, according to VentureBeat.
To tip someone, a user first links a bank account or payment card to the Tip.ly app. After taking a smartphone photo of the recipient’s face and indicating the tip amount, the service uses facial recognition to match the photo the user has taken, then sends the entire tip to the recipient and charges the user an additional 50 cents plus 5 percent of the tip.
The catch: The recipient must also have an account with Tip.ly, must submit photos for matching, and has only 14 days to claim tips. Users can also tip through a app feature that lets them browse through Tip.ly users nearby.
The Tip.ly app is available for iOS now, with an Android version set for release in 30 to 45 days. The company also plans to make its software development kit available with select merchant partners and service providers to integrate into their own apps.
Tip.ly, which was founded in 2013, has raised $800,000 in seed funding and is now working on a $2 million funding round. While the company expects the service to be used to tip on-demand service providers such as Uber and Lyft drivers, it’s unlike to be competition for conventional P2P payment apps like Venmo or Square Cash, both of which are less expensive.
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