Changes in the payments industry with Eye Technologies

Credit and debit cards are a leading payment method in Brazil and the competition among card readers is big. One thing that connects the main brands in that market is the possibility of using a software from Eye Technologies. Eye PDV allows business owners to negotiate and sell directly in the machines, using the touch technology.

In this special interview for Website Planet we talked with João Cruz, CEO of Eye Technologies, to know more about his company, the journey to create the software and what are the next steps in payment methods.

You’ve had a very interesting journey before starting Eye, with careers in sports and music. How did that experience help you with the idea of Eye Technologies?

I wasn’t the type of student in high school willing to strive and get a master’s degree, get a job and work for a corporation. Since I was a kid, I used to try to find myself in sports but had an injury that got in the way. So, I started focusing on a second dream, which was music.

Both segments taught me a lot of soft skills, such as determination, competitiveness, discipline from sports and a creative skill from composing. This way, I created the company from scratch and was resilient in facing the daily hard tasks, building my business on my own and then getting people to help and grow as a leader.

I wouldn’t change anything I went by, even though sometimes I think I lost time for a while. It made me who I am, and I still bring a lot of that to the way I work and apply the philosophy to our culture and the people here at Eye.

Can you explain the Eye PDV system to our audience?

When we started to dive deep into sales automation for the physical world, I started seeing that companies, all projects that were around, were still built in older technologies. Then, I had a chance to work in one of these companies for a year and a half, which was my first opportunity to be inside a technology company: I was in Support, Sales, Project…. Passing through these departments gave me a wide view of how things work.

Looking back to 2012, finding an opportunity in a major segment, as in events, came from a question they made me at the company. They used to work with a system for hotels, gas stations, restaurants, but wanted to know how they could use the automation system in a big event like Rock in Rio. I did not have the answer, but I had the idea that these places would need some type of mobile service.

Back then, technology was very different and we were the first native Android sales app in Brazil, maybe in the world. Even Square, Clover and companies we always look up to in the American market were born in 2013, 2014, and we were doing it in 2012, for Android S2 models. People were even skeptical about the development of Android language at that time.

By using this as an opportunity, we were able to build our technology based on user experience and today that’s our strength compared to our competitors. We say we are like Apple for point-of-sales because our solution works centered on user experience and delivers something hard to execute in a simple way.

As years went by, we’ve seen the market shift. Now, we have things in Brazil we did not have before. All acquirers are experiencing a shift in their business, from the analogical credit card machines to digital ones. The current opportunity is similar to developing an Uber app for the final customer.

Acquirers have all the market share and they are putting a cellphone in the hand of each salesperson, so I have the opportunity to get into all that equipment, which opens up the market.

We’ve been in the vanguard of this market and now, being inside of a global group, we make the statement of being the best system small businesses that are just starting and don’t have a solution in their hands can have at their stage of their journey.

Cybersecurity is a major issue in the world right now. How do you guarantee protection to your customers with so much important information in your system?

After doing a M&A with Getnet in 2021, we are in a group today. This situation is even harder because competitor startups around us don’t have to comply with our level of due diligence.

We are going through a very tough process of compliance and structuring all protections involving cybersecurity and LGPD for our clients.

Do you have a specific industry of focus or your solution is a one-size-fits-all?

We’ve always been based in food services. We came from the events industry and went to retail but our main product is aimed at restaurants, bars, nightclubs and any business that involves food and drinks. We integrate their systems and apps, so that customers can make orders and pay for them. Everything evolved from that segment.

But when we started going for the long tail, we did a lot of research and interviewed many people to understand that we can have a shelf control system able to serve the majority of segments, as long as customers at the initial stage of their businesses.

We are not focusing on people who need a back office to control inventory, a large team, and control payrolls. We are focusing on the step behind that: people getting their first system and who need to focus all energy to sell more, develop their service or product and make it scale.

What are Eye’s plans for the next 3 to 5 years?

I think we’re going to play a big part in the transition from analog to digital credit card machines. Cellphones are also turning into credit card machines, which will change the industry. Our whole thesis is to make a switch in the life of people who are only selling numbers to products, service and data.

We want to help them register what they do with the cell phone and build on top of that. I see a big switch in the market for hardware equipment for the next few years and that will take us to a whole other level. If you look at companies like Samsung, professionals can use their devices with Android to sell their service, make plans, send payment links…

We’re bringing what we do best, which is turning payments into personalized payments. To an acquirer who uses most technology from other companies, we’re turning that into products for the final customer.

Getnet is probably going to launch a tap on phone solution in the third quarter and we’re already talking to big customers to figure out how to implement that in their companies and processes. There’s a rush now to understand the capabilities we’re having in the future, and we are focusing on that.