Casserly ready to roll on mobile money
Published:Wednesday | July 24, 2013 | 12:00 AM
Avia Collinder, Business Writer
PayToo Corp CEO Michel Poignant has swiftly denied claims emanating from inside his company that a mobile money partnership with Jamaica's Patrick Casserly was at risk.
Poignant was forced to do damage control after someone, using the company's corporate email account, said that PayToo had lost contact with Casserly and that it has delayed plans by the American company to launch its mobile wallet into Caribbean markets.
Casserly, reached on the weekend, indicated that he had taken a break but was ready to press ahead with the project for which he has a lead role as CEO of PayToo Caribbean.
On Monday, following discussions with Casserly, Poignant told Wednesday Business that the marketing representative who made the comment about Casserly's unavailability was no longer with the company and was unaware of the status of the project.
"So I did look into the corporate email and I found a correspondence between you and us. The marketing person left the company recently and did not have all of the last updates," said Poignant.
"We have an agreement with Mr Casserly for deploying first PayToo to Jamaica as a global mobile wallet, offering all of the services that PayToo is offering in the other countries or in the USA," he said. "We are at the beginning of this project, so for now, [there] is no real road map set up or planning. We will know a little more in the coming days."
Casserly said he would provide updates on the project later this week. He said he will meet with PayToo in Miami on Friday, but otherwise declined to discuss details of the arrangement, saying he was bound by a non-disclosure agreement.
The current events flow from a request by Wednesday Business to media contact Eleane Gonzalez for an update on PayToo Caribbean's roll-out.
UNCLEAR DETAILS
An email from the account eleane@paytoo.com, signed 'Marketing Team', said in response that there had been no contact with Casserly for six weeks, and that PayToo may have to find a new partner. The actual respondent is now unclear, and Poignant did not speak directly to requests for clarification, saying some matters were confidential.
"PayToo was supposed to start deployment three months ago in Jamaica with a mobile application for the local lottery (Supreme Marketing), and then following with Trinidad, Antigua, Bahamas, and St Kitts," said the email, which misidentified lottery company Supreme Ventures Limited.
Casserly said he returned on the weekend after being off the radar for almost two months, and was now ready to do business.
"I only just got back; I have been out of circulation for seven weeks," he told Wednesday Business. "I am still interested in the project," he said.
PayToo Corp announced its alliance with Casserly and his company eMagination Inc in May.
The partners, working through PayToo
Caribbean, plan to introduce the PayToo Mobile Wallet in 26 regional markets, starting in Jamaica. The Jamaican roll-out requires sign-off by the Bank of Jamaica.
Casserly built his name in ICT through his former company E-Services Group, which was snapped up by ACS years ago and later fell into the hands of Xerox at its takeover of ACS.
He is highly respected as an ICT expert and was named an ambassador/envoy for the sector in 2011 by then Industry Ministry Christopher Tufton.
The PayToo release says the Jamaican businessman is currently the head of five companies.
The PayToo product is reportedly the first mobile wallet solution to combine telecommunications and mobile payments, all drawing from a single account.
President and CEO of Supreme Ventures, Brian George, said Tuesday that he would comment on the PayToo plans later.
Poignant declined to speak to the specifics of his plan, saying some things were confidential. He said PayToo Caribbean is best described as a joint-venture arrangement with Casserly to execute the mobile money project, and is not an equity deal.