Latest update
Dear ZIPZERO USERS,
We hope this message finds you well. As we forecast on our social media last week, we’re writing to you today to explain our current situation in detail and to lay out our plans going forward. We understand this is a long read but we want to share with you the whole situation.
What’s happened
As we informed you last week, the investor who had pledged to finance our business through the Future Fund was forced to pull out of the agreement. Unfortunately, the investor met up with his own set of obstacles related to the current economic situation and on 27 July, we were informed that the investor would not be making the investment as agreed. Because government support was dependent on the investor transferring their share of the investment, that opportunity also fell through. Needless to say, this has placed ZIPZERO in a tough spot. We currently do not have a definitive source of financing and we have had to restart the process from scratch.
What’s next
These recent hurdles have hit our team really hard. We have put our very best efforts, our time, and our initial investment into getting ZIPZERO off the ground last year. Since the pandemic hit, we’ve been continuing to fight to stay afloat. Our employees and users have trusted us to make it through this tough time. The faith that you all have shown us over these past few months has given us the power to keep going. So thank you again for all the support you’ve shown us in your comments and messages. It means a great deal.
Now, we still have a tough road ahead but the most important thing is that we have a plan and the drive to put that plan into action. We are committed to making ZIPZERO a success and helping our users across the country pay their monthly bills.
What we’ve set out to do over the coming weeks:
1. We are in the process of reviewing a list of investors who had previously invested in ZIPZERO or expressed interest in investing. We are actively getting back in touch to see if they are in a position to lend a hand as we launch this new fundraising round. More importantly, we are building a new list of strong strategic investors, some of whom have reached out to us themselves in recent weeks. Now, we realistically assess the process of bringing new investors on board to take up to three months. This is the timeframe needed in order to finalize a solid investment that will allow us to pay what we owe to our users and to achieve our long-term goals going forward.
2. Over this three-month period, we will have to extend the verification period for new ZIPZERO funds to three months. In other words, funds earned from scanned receipts and processed online orders (for beta testers) will become available no earlier than three months from the date of scanning. As soon as we have secured the required amount of financing from our investors, we will return to the seven-day verification period for scanned receipts.
3. Since we currently don’t have the funds to cover the transfers that have been ordered since the pandemic first struck in March, we will also have to cancel those orders and put the units back into our users’ ZIPZERO wallets for future payments. These units will appear as ‘available’ but we won’t be able to carry out your payment orders until we have finalised the upcoming investment process. As soon as that happens, users will be able to order the payment from their ZIPZERO wallets to cover a single or several utility bills at a time - with no limit on the amount that is ordered for payment.
We hope that we have shed some light on our current situation and what our position is going forward. We realize for some of you, three more months is just too long to wait. We respect every decision our users decide to take in this matter. On our end, we want to give ourselves ample time to come through with a comprehensive investment strategy that takes into account everything that the changing economy has brought to the table. We also want to be transparent with our users every step of the way and we’ll continue to provide updates with every new development. Of course, we do hope that you will continue to stick with us over the next part of our journey. As soon as we have a new investment secured, we will make sure to come up with a meaningful way to show our thanks to all the users who have stuck with us.
The pandemic has shaken up our world and brought on some harsh changes. It’s up to us to navigate this new reality. What remains unchanged is our dedication to our mission of helping people take control of their spending data and use that power to cover their monthly bills. Our belief in the strength of this mission is what will keep us battling forward towards a more optimistic future.
As a brief note regarding the current state of our business, we can confirm that we are not currently selling or otherwise sharing our users’ shopping data. The value that ZIPZERO holds for its users and investors is its potential to draw retailers into the circle and allow them to reward our users directly for every purchase they make in the form of bill payment. Again, we will share any developments we make regarding investments and partnerships with our users as they happen.