All-in-one payment card startup Plastc calls it quits, pre-orders go unfulfilled

Shawn Knight

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Staff member

Plastc in 2014 dazzled technologists with the promise of a versatile piece of plastic to handle all of your payment card duties. The company, which managed to raise at least $9 million in revenue from around 80,000 pre-orders, is unfortunately no more.

Plastc revealed on Thursday that it has exhausted all options to raise the money it needs to continue. As such, it is ceasing all operations effective immediately and is exploring options to file chapter 7 bankruptcy. All employees have been let go including customer care and social media specialists.

The startup explains that it was expecting to close on a $3.5 million Series A round of funding on February 28 of this year that would have been used to mass produce Plastc cards for pre-order customers.

The principal investment group postponed their investment and within a couple of weeks, we’re told, the round fell apart. Another investor came to the table with $6.75 million yet again, at the very last minute, the investor backed out (just yesterday, apparently).

Again, without additional capital, Plastc says it cannot move forward with production meaning they will not be able to fulfill any pre-orders. In other words, those 80,000 or so people that backed the startup have lost their money. Ouch.

With so many other tech-inspired payment options already available, however, Plastc would likely have had a tough time surviving in today's environment.

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Why did you even hire "customer care" and "social media specialists" if your product wasnt even ready for a production stage IMO. Its a different thing when you have more money and lots of big backers, sure, but you gotta be a bit strict about exepenses when youre running on fumes...
 
Why did you even hire "customer care" and "social media specialists" if your product wasnt even ready for a production stage IMO. Its a different thing when you have more money and lots of big backers, sure, but you gotta be a bit strict about exepenses when youre running on fumes...
Good point yeah. I didn't even think of that.
 
I'm glad it died, with a name that stupid. Its time for companies to stop trying to patent a common word by dropping vowels or adopting some other torturous spelling.
 
Here's another great reason for any of these start-up beggers to be required, by law, to post a performance bond that covers all donations. It's simply not right to stick people like this. Wonder if anyone has researched how much of this money went into the developers pockets instead of the project ......
 
I got the email from Plastc today and noticed they'd stated that they were sorry to the backers. In my case there was no intention of backing them, I was pre-ordering the product. I'm well aware that backers take a risk but there was no mention that the pre-order was deemed anything other than a product purchase.

I guess a class-action should ensue.
 
I'm not familiar with this, but how is this different from my VISA card or online solution like Skrill? I can do practically anything with my plastic credit card already.
 
I'm not familiar with this, but how is this different from my VISA card or online solution like Skrill? I can do practically anything with my plastic credit card already.
For info on what it is, click on the first word of the article: Plastc
 
Why did you even hire "customer care" and "social media specialists" if your product wasnt even ready for a production stage IMO. Its a different thing when you have more money and lots of big backers, sure, but you gotta be a bit strict about exepenses when youre running on fumes...

Because this has scam written all over it? I wonder if the "customer care" and "social media specialists" were family or friends?
 
Here's another great reason for any of these start-up beggers to be required, by law, to post a performance bond that covers all donations. It's simply not right to stick people like this. Wonder if anyone has researched how much of this money went into the developers pockets instead of the project ......
Investments are generally risky.
 
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