‘Fintech-for-good’ start-up thanky眉 has developed the first decentralised peer-to-peer tipping platform, powered by Viva.com and Mastercard Move.
It means staff can receive and manage their tips quicker, employees don鈥檛 have to pay tax or NIC at source and employers don鈥檛 have to pay National Insurance on them.
It also provides a downloadable financial record of tips to help hospitality and service staff fill in self-assessment forms and use as a credit reference to help them secure a loan or a mortgage.
The Hull-based firm鈥檚 system has been trialled in Hull鈥檚 Nibble caf茅 to help waiting staff collect tips electronically and the Polar Bear Music Club in Hull, where gig-goers can 鈥榯ap-to-tip鈥� performing musicians after their sets.聽
The founder of thanky眉, Gerard Toplass, is a successful technology entrepreneur with 20 years鈥� experience in building technology and services businesses.
He said he was driven to develop the platform to give hospitality service staff and musicians a better deal and the respect they deserve.
鈥淭his is a tough time for the hospitality and service industry. Rising National Insurance and reduced business rates relief will make it harder for businesses and an increasingly cashless society means there鈥檚 less money for physical tips that go straight to staff, which can account for 40% of their income,鈥� he said.
鈥淏ut surveys show over 80% of customers want to tip using their cards or integrated wallets but want to make sure the person serving them actually gets the tip.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 why we created thanky眉. We want to ensure staff have the ability to keep up to 100% of their tips so they can earn more money and get paid faster. We want to treat hospitality and service staff as the key workers they are.鈥�
The introduction of the system comes as hospitality businesses face a triple whammy in April of National Insurance for employers increasing to 15%; Retail, Hospitality and Leisure 老九品茶 Rates Relief being reduced from 75% to 40%; and the National Minimum Wage increasing to 拢12.21 an hour.
Anna Lamb, founder and owner of the Nibble Caf茅 in Hull, who are using thanky眉 added:
鈥淚 started Nibble in 2016 to serve nearby office staff for breakfast and brunch but we’ve now doubled in size. We’ve got an outside area as well and some great customers.
鈥淏ut on April 6th we face an increase of National Insurance to 15% and that鈥檚 going to be hard for us.
鈥淚鈥檝e always wanted a system where we could cut out the middleman so the staff could get the tips directly without NI being taken off and thanky眉 seems to be the answer.
鈥淲hat I love is that it’s just direct. The staff can manage their own app. For me, it’s less admin time because at the moment, we’re manually having to add things up during the day, add it up at the end of the week. Whereas thanky眉 just does everything for you.鈥�
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