New App From QR Marketing and Mobile Commerce Leader Paperlinks Lets People Pre-Order and Burn Through Lines; Beard Papa and Several LA Food Trucks Among First to Sign Up

paydragon

LOS ANGELES, CA – Make room in your mobile wallet for PayDragon, a new mobile purchasing app that lets smartphone users skip the line at the register with one-tap ordering and payment. PayDragon translates the convenient one-click online shopping experience to the real world by enabling consumers to easily browse, shop and pay for items on-the-go through either QR code scans or simple in-app discovery.

Following a successful trial at the 2012 South by Southwest Interactive and Music Festival in Austin, PayDragon is today extending its effortless mobile shopping experience to Los Angeles area restaurants, food trucks and customers. You can now tap into PayDragon to browse, shop and pay for local items on-the-go from a fast-growing list of participating merchants, including the sweets chain Beard Papa and a number of LA-based food trucks such as The Bun Truck, CambalaCHE’s, Auntie’s Fry Bread, Chunk n Chip, The Grill Sergeant, The Wien, and Rounds Premium Burgers. No more waiting in line, dealing with cash transactions (and leftover change), or floundering with complicated mobile transactions.

Launched by the team behind Paperlinks, a Y-Combinator graduate and a leader in QR code marketing and commerce, the PayDragon app is now available for free on iPhone and Android. After downloading, users can securely enter their billing preferences and immediately scan, browse, discover, select and purchase items from participating businesses right from the palm of their hands. Once an order is placed, all that’s left to do is simply wait to be notified that your food or item is ready, and walk up to the register and pick up your food!

PayDragon features include:

        
        --  QR reader: scan codes with participating PayDragon merchants to
            instantly begin a transaction
        --  A discover tab: locate nearby participating merchants
        --  A game layer: earn points toward incentives from merchants
        --  Exclusive deals: take merchants up on sales and food deals
        --  Facebook integration: tell your friends about the great meal you just
            enjoyed
        --  Receipts for transactions: keep track of purchase activity
        --  Notifications: receive alerts when an order or item is ready to pick
            up

“We’ve been on the front lines, developing QR and m-commerce technology, and have seen consumers increasingly embrace interaction with brands, products and transactions on their smartphones,” said Hamilton Chan, founder and CEO of Paperlinks, and now PayDragon. “This experience has enabled us to create a mobile payment app that people really want to use and is drop-dead easy. PayDragon lets users easily pull up and navigate food truck menus, shop for items, and discover local deals and vendors. Likewise, merchants can more easily fulfill orders and get goods to their customers. Everyone wins.”

PayDragon is perfectly tailored for food trucks and other high-volume food vendors who want to minimize lines and wait times, and focus their staff entirely on fulfillment. PayDragon benefits the merchant by providing hands-off order fulfillment and payment management, minimal set-up and investment, and an internal dashboard so staff can keep an eye on activity and keep track of how things are going with the day’s orders.

“Whereas other mobile payment solutions allow you to pay only when you reach the front of the line,” Chan continues, “PayDragon lets you order and pay without ever having to get in one. That is a huge advantage.”

“PayDragon was set up in a really smart way. For a food truck like us, it helps us run things very smoothly when the lines are long and the staff is slammed by orders,” said Eric Silverstein, the owner of the peached tortilla and Yume Burger food trucks, two of the SXSW test merchants. “We were able to monitor orders through the internal dashboard, which made getting the food to the customers fast and easy. Most importantly, PayDragon allows us to serve more orders in less time and make the most of those really important busy periods when people don’t want to wait in line and may go elsewhere.”

For more information and to discover where PayDragon is currently being adopted in the greater Los Angeles area, visit PayDragon.com or download the app in the App Store or Android Market.

About PayDragon: PayDragon is a mobile shopping app that lets you skip the line to the register with one-tap mobile ordering. From the team behind Paperlinks, a QR code marketing and mobile commerce leader, PayDragon provides efficient, convenient remote purchasing options through in-app discovery tools and QR codes. PayDragon is backed by Y Combinator, SV Angel, Start Fund and Rustic Canyon Partners and is based in Los Angeles, CA. PayDragon is available for iPhone and Android.

Megan Soto and Kira McCroden

[email protected]

415-625-8555