Queue blues at jazz concerts?

HI-TRAC: The author's shorthand for Happiness Index, Infrastructure, Talent, Regulations, Access and Capital. The six pillars that make UAE a great place for a Startup. This week's article is about how the infrastructure in the UAE is attracting talent from around the world.

This week's article is about an industry and a fintech-based response to it. And unlike most fintech solutions, this is not about making financial services simpler but much more about making payments incidental. The end-objective is rich data, driven by enhanced consumer and merchant experience.

The focus of this fintech is on the live events industry - sports, cultural, entertainment and related.

Something about the amped up atmosphere at games and music events changes the way we normally behave. Add in a couple of star teams or divas and the atmosphere gets really charged up. Paying for entry at the gate, buying drinks during the breaks, procuring a souvenir quite often become mini-events in their own right. Fans advancing, hands held high and gripping a bunch of notes, trying to score a latte before the break gets over - these are typical scenes at almost any sports, rock or jazz event.

Events are of many types - cultural, musical, industry-specific exhibitions, conventions and conferences, sports are the main categories. Looking at just entertainment events alone, the Dubai numbers alone are eye-opening. These numbers come from an excellent report called The State of Ticketed Events in Dubai, published by Dubai Tourism. Here is an overview of just one small slice - entertainment events.

The Dubai statistics do not include the in-event economy. Food and beverages, souvenirs, content.

Undoubtedly, the events economy will grow. People like congregating - there is something about human connection that seems to defy the efforts of virtual reality and artificial intelligence.

On the other hand, for some reason, much of the hype in fintech is around super specialised areas that focus on specific aspects of the financial services industry value chain. Usually with the aim of reducing the total human cost. Simple experiences that are more design-based than tech-based are a rarity. The reality is that tech has become fairly commoditised. The value really is in its application to solve human-centered design challenges.

Qpal (Qpal.com) is an in5 incubated platform. Craig Buchan, CEO of Qpal, is a native of Aberdeen, Scotland. He's had an entrepreneurial inclination since his school days. Not long ago, when working as a professional in the IT world, Buchan attended three events in quick succession. The in-event experience left him cold. He wondered why ordering food, drinks and buying event collateral was such a tiring and nerve-wracking experience. He conceptualised a solution and recognised an immediate opportunity when he didn't find similar ones in the market. He quit his job, bootstrapped the company and cut personal expenses to the bare minimum in order to channel resources to the venture. After being selected by in5, he moved to Dubai to develop Qpal further. 

Unlike generic wallets, Qpal has laser-sharp focus on just the events industry. And as the statistics have shown, this is a sizeable playing field in the Dubai alone. The estimates for the annual revenues for the industry in the UK alone are worth £42 billion. Summing this across all the large event centres globally, it appears that the industry is worth several hundred billion dollars in direct and indirect revenues.

Qpal's core focus is on rich data not payments itself. When you enter an event zone or venue as an attendee, all that you need is your phone and a Qpal account. Not even a data connection. You can use your Qpal account for all in-event spending on food and beverages as well as event collateral. Qpal is also integrating with leading event-ticketing platforms in the region.

Event organisers sign-up to accept Qpal payments. All that they need are smartphones. Attendees and organisers both use the Qpal app. Attendees pull up a QR code after authenticating themselves and present it to the event organiser or merchants within the event zone. The organisers and merchants scan the QR code and deduct the amount from the attendees' wallets. In real time, both attendees (payers) and organisers (payees) can see and validate the success or failure of the transaction. Qpal users can top up their wallets using multiple, convenient sources of funding.

However, the value is not in the transaction itself but in all the data that accompanies it. Who buys what and with what frequency? What are the transaction triggers? What do demographics and psychographics have to do with it. Unlike conventional open-loop systems, all the data resides within the Qpal world. Event organisers immediately see the value.

In5 has built-up a formidable track-record in the area of incubating pragmatic fintech start-ups. Qpal is yet another example. Infact, at the finals of the Middle East Visa Everywhere Initiative competition last week coinciding with Gitex, Qpal won the overall award as well as took first place in the Acceptance Challenge category.