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CompanyProfile

Holistic control for cardholders and processors

ave you wished you could manage credit
card activities in real-time? For Vaduvur
Bharghavan, chief executive officer of OnDot
H Systems Inc., this desire led him to create a
consumer phone app for cardholders to control every-
thing from getting a card, to using the card and accessing
all the associated data insights.
Bharghavan was working in the wireless industry in 2007
when he fell victim to credit card fraud while traveling
overseas. He had trouble turning his card off online. "I ISO/MLS contact:
couldn't figure out a convenient way to do it," he said. Jim Cahill

In 2010, fate struck again when Bharghavan's debit card Vice President of Sales
was targeted. "It totaled $8,000, and it took a long time to
get it back, and I still didn't get it all," Bharghavan said. "I info@ondotsystems.com
wanted to outcast the fraudsters, and as a consumer, be 800-669-6265
in control and manage when, where and how my cards
were used."
A universal solution

Bharghavan decided to build a phone app, link it into the such as moments of tension (a lost card, for example),
payment authorization stream and use predictive mobile convenience (travel needs) or delight (appealing offers).
technology – such as location tracking – to ensure he and Bharghavan wanted to make the OnDot application
other consumers could "make the purchase where I am, available on consumers' mobile device to give them,
and not the fraudster, who is where I am not," he recalled. as cardholders, more immediate control when these
instances occur.
Bharghavan based OnDot in Silicon Valley, partnered
with people in the payments industry and went to work to Driven by consumer needs
create an app the company brought to market in 2011. The According to Bharghavan, the app functions like a digital
OnDot team directed their focus first on the U.S. market, persona of the card, and the user has the ability to set
targeting the financial institutions, card networks and preferences on when, where and how that card can be
processors. used. He likened it to a "personal companion."

"Fast forward eight or nine years, and the good news is we Explaining the underlying scope of the product,
have 90 percent of the processing market," Bharghavan Bharghavan said it responds to a defined set of consumer
said. "We are integrated into the real-time rails of all these pain points, such as, "getting a card, using the card,
processors." understanding transactions, managing card activity and
Today, OnDot has operations in eight locations across the engaging with the issuer."
globe, 350 employees, and the app is distributed through a
growing network of integrated financial partners already The OnDot user interface has also been intuitively
4,500 members strong. designed with settings for adding and activating controls

Why a mobile app? and alerts for security, spend limits, merchant types and
more. Additionally, it lists pertinent transaction details
"We reflected on where we are in the market and the in real time, has settings to manage recurring payment
ecosystem, and we really wanted to create a holistic card and card-on-file relationships, offers interactive feedback
solution that does for cards what mobile banking does and credit score monitoring, and prompts users based on
for accounts," Bharghavan said. "During the lifetime location and purchase data.
of OnDot, we've seen a very pronounced shift toward
consumers using their mobile devices as the primary "Because we have the user location and profile, we are
point of engagement for all day-to-day activities." able to make sure offers can be available in a contextual
manner," Bharghavan said. And context continues
Bharghavan further noted OnDot learned there is a strong to inform the company's direction. Bharghavan said
connection between a person's credit card experiences OnDot is "driven by consumer needs and working on
and "the power of now." He indicated these experiences those technologies we feel will truly help ourselves as
typically involve a heightened degree of immediacy, consumers."
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