Smart payment card company Plastc goes under, despite 80,000 pre-orders and $9m
- Friday, April 21st, 2017
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Plastc, a smart payment card that was supposed to store all of your cards within one piece of plastic, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and let go of all employees, without fulfilling any orders in almost three years.
The company began taking pre-orders back in 2014, taking 80,000 pre-orders and raising $9m (£7m) as a result – according to Magnify Money. Despite the amount of money raised, Plastc continually delayed the release of its smart payment card.
According to the company, it was expecting to close a $3.5m Series A funding round on 28 February this year, but the investment group backed out a few weeks later. It claims it also made progress with another investor offering $6.75m, however, this investor also backed out at the last minute earlier this week. Plastc says this capital was to be allocated to the mass production and shipping of its cards.
Furthermore, the company alleges that there are functioning cards which have been demonstrated to investors and backers.
“For the past three years, our mission here at Plastc was to build and deliver the most technically ambitious smart card on the planet,” the company said in a statement. “After making enormous leaps in development, product innovation and progress towards our goal, Plastc has exhausted all of its options to raise the money it needs to continue.
“We are disappointed and emotionally distraught, and while we know this is extremely disappointing for you, we want our backers to know that we did everything we could to make Plastc Card a reality.”
People who backed the company and had made pre-orders have taken to Reddit to vent their frustrations, with many considering filing a lawsuit against the company’s management. It does make you wonder about what happened to that $9m.