Neji Tawo, founder of a boutique software development company Wiscount company, says his dad inspired him to become an engineer. When Tawo was a child, his father asked him to come up with a formula to calculate the amount of fuel in the tanks at the family gas station. Tawo then created an app for gas stations that helps prevent gas siphoning.
The idea for Tawo’s latest venture came from another source: a television advertisement for a charity. Frustrated by his experience filling out donation forms, Tawo looked for an alternative, faster way to complete such transactions. He put it out noisy.
PayTalk by Tawo, which is one of Amazon’s first products Black founders create with Alexa, uses conversational artificial intelligence to conduct transactions via astute devices. Using the PayTalk app, users can find a ride, order a meal, pay bills, buy tickets and even apply for a loan, among other things, Tawo says.
“We see opportunity in a generation that already uses voice services for everyday tasks like checking the weather, playing music, calling friends and more,” Tawo said. “At PayTalk, we believe that voice services should work like a person – being able to do everything from calling you for transportation, to taking a delivery order, to paying your phone bill.”
PayTalk is powered by pre-built voice recognition models on the front end and various API connectors behind the scenes, Tawo explains. In addition to Alexa, the app integrates with Siri and Google Assistant, allowing users to add voice shortcuts such as “Hey Siri, make a reservation on PayTalk.”
“Me and my team have been working on this all along because many of the VCs we approached initially were skeptical about voice as the future form of the device. The industry is in its early stages and many are still skeptical about it,” Tawo said. “With the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent shift to more remote execution of various types of transactions (i.e. ordering food from home, online shopping, etc.)… we have seen an increased interest in using voice services. This, in turn, has increased demand for our product and we believe we can continue to expand our offering and, as a result, raise the usability of voice services.
Tawo’s PayTalk offering reminded me a lot of Viv, a startup founded by Siri co-creator Adam Cheyer (later acquired by Samsung) that proposed voice as the connective tissue between various apps and services. It’s a promising idea – even tempting. But when it comes to PayTalk, the execution isn’t done yet.
The PayTalk app is currently only available on iOS and Android, and in my experience it’s a little spotty. The chatbot-like flow allows you to type commands – which is a good solution in situations where voice doesn’t make sense (or is inappropriate) – but doesn’t transition particularly smoothly to action. When I used it to search for a taxi by typing in the suggested “book a ride” command, PayTalk asked for a pickup and drop-off location, then threw me at the Apple Maps screen without any information I had entered.
The booking and booking feature also seems broken. PayTalk walked me through the restaurant search, asking what time I’d like to book, party size, and so on. But the app allowed me to “confirm” a table for 2 a.m. at SS106 Aperitivo Bar – an Italian restaurant in Alberta – on a day when the restaurant closes at 10 p.m.
Other “categories” of referrals in PayTalk have very constrained capabilities – or simply don’t work. Currently, I can only order groceries from two grocery stores in my area (Downtown Brooklyn) – MNO African Market and Simi African Foods Market. Requesting a loan sends an email with a link to Glance Capital, a provider of personal loans for gig workers, which, when clicked, results in a 404 error. The command to book “luxury services” like a yacht or a “seaplane” (yes, really) displays nothing, which would resemble a confirmation screen, while the “pay for parking” command confusingly asks for a zone number.
To finance purchases via PayTalk (e.g. parking), a wallet is available in the app. But I didn’t know how to transfer money to it. The app supposedly accepts payment cards, but clicking the “Use Card” button triggers a loading animation that ends quickly.
I could go on. But suffice it to say that PayTalk is in the very early stages of development. I started to think that the app was released prematurely, but PayTalk official Twitter account has been advertising it for at least the last few months.
Perhaps PayTalk will finally live up to what Tawo has given me, so to speak – Wiscount is beginning a four-month tenure in the Black Founders Build with Alexa program. In the meantime, it’s essential to note that Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri are already capable of handling most of what PayTalk promises to one day achieve.
The fight for voice recognition in vehicles is gaining momentum
“With a potential investment of $100,000 [from the Black Founders Build with Alexa Program]”We will look to raise a seed round to expand our product offering with features that will enable customers to seamlessly conduct e-commerce and financial transactions on voice-enabled devices,” Tawo said. “PayTalk is primarily a business-to-consumer platform. However, as we continue to innovate and integrate voice-activated options… we see the potential to support enterprise applications by replacing and automating lengthy form-filling processes that are common in many industries, such as healthcare.”
We hope that the basic capabilities of the application will attract attention above all.