Meet the trio who want to stamp out toxic receipts for good and have processed 1.5m digital copies 

Getting a receipt printed out at the till could soon be a thing of the past on a national and even global scale if these three entrepreneurs get their way.

Matty Cusden-Ross, Veronique Barbosa and Tom Reay are the founders of a digital receipts start-up called Flux which aims to eradicate the practice of automatically printing receipts – a system they believe keeps shoppers back in the ‘Dark Ages’.

Interest in Flux, which provides a digital alternative to the humble paper receipt, has grown rapidly. 

In 2019, Flux went from generating 30,000 receipts to 1.2million receipts by the end of the year – a 4,000 per cent jump. Now the founders say Flux has processed around 1.5million digital receipts and counting.

They’ve already partnered with a number of challenger banks like Monzo and Starling while being backed by Barclays, which has just recently acquired a minority stake in the business.

Beyond Revolut

All three met and formed a bond while working at British fintech, Revolut and bring different strengths and skills to the business. 

But this diversity in skills is what makes Flux ultimately click, says Matty its chief executive.

He explains: ‘We have different perspectives and approaches to problems but when you bring it together then that makes a strong union.

‘Veronique and I work on the business side of things and the way we describe it is that my focus is on keeping the business growing – so looking for new opportunities – and Veronique is incredible at keeping the business going – so all the operations work smoothly.

‘Tom is in charge of everything form a tech perspective and that is what completes the three of us.’

That’s not to say that the three haven’t had their differences. In the early days, opinions differed on whether to ditch Flux’s app or to integrate the service with banks’ in-house platforms. 

This was a decision which Tom, Flux’s chief technical officer, was initially against.

Matty agrees this was understandable given the amount of hard work and time Tom had put into developing the app.

Tom says: ‘I had just spent the last couple of months putting a lot of hard work and love into the app and it’s so easy to get involved in the emotions of ‘I just built this’ rather than what’s best for the company.’

The decision in the end was to rather integrate the service into their respective partner bank apps. 

Rather than letting this and other disagreements affect their working relationship, the trio say disagreements give them an opportunity to become a stronger force.

Matty says: ‘We do have different perspectives and approaches to problems but when you bring it together then that makes a strong union. 

‘We are all are really passionate about solving problems and not afraid to tackle new challenges head on.’

A solution to many problems

Flux’s digital receipts are offering consumers several solutions to various problems, since it was launched in June 2016.

It first and foremost puts an end to the problem of lost receipts for when consumers want to return an item or provide proof of purchase to redeem a guarantee if an item is faulty.

This naturally lends itself well for businesses that need to capture purchases and receipts for VAT calculations. 

Flux says it enhances bank statements by showing each item bought and providing additional value by linking connected information such as e-stamps to those items.

Flux also wants to transform the way in which loyalty points are redeemed. 

It points out that three quarters of British consumers belong to at least one loyalty programme and that a lot of points are left unclaimed because of shopper apathy.

It’s now working on a way to link existing loyalty programmes such as KFC’s Colonel Club to the banking app through Flux, which means loyalty points can be collected automatically without the need for a loyalty card to be scanned at the till.

Finally, and most importantly for the founders, it also helps with the environment. 

While many companies are trying to save the planet by recycling waste such as paper, cardboard and plastics, Flux’s focus is just one waste item: receipts.

But the founders point out that theirs is a vital mission because over 11billion receipts are printed every year, which costs businesses £32billion and leads to large amounts of waste and pollution because receipts are toxic and can’t be recycled.

A flexible environment

The business is not only kind on the environment, but it’s employees too as it operates a flexible working environment – inspired, in part, by founder Tom becoming a father.

Matty explains: ‘We spend 40 per cent of our time in work from home. Wednesdays and Fridays are typically work from home days.

‘We know we all have different needs and we as a business want to make sure we cater to that. 

‘Tom recently became a father and what we understand and appreciate that needs change when you become a parent.’

This flexible environment has also created an environment in which the business is more ready for disruptions that many are suffering in the wake of the Covid-19, loosely referred to as the coronavirus outbreak, which is forcing many to work remotely and self-isolate.

Flux employees are, as a result all now working from home. Matty adds: ‘We’ve been fortunate that we are well prepared for this.’

Expansion and future fundraising

Since its launch Flux has garnered several rounds of funding from various sources. 

It initially raised $7.5million (£6.43million) in Series A funding by venture capital firm E-ventures as well as existing backers Profounders and Anthemis.

Matty says that, in total, the disclosed amount in funding stands just shy of $10million (£8.57million).

But now that figure is bound to be a lot higher as this year Barclays became the latest investor in the business in exchange for an undisclosed minority stake. 

Flux and Barclays’ relationship began back in 2017 when the founders the Barclays Accelerator programme, powered by Techstars.

Veronique says: ‘We’re excited about Barclays who are pioneers in the retail banking space and we are working with part of the team that launched contactless ten years ago. 

‘It’s changed the face of payment and how we pay and consume today. They say we do have the power to be the next type of ‘contactless’ transformation to payments.’

Flux receipts are currently only available through its current banking and retail partners, but the founders say they’re in talks with a major retailer and many more banks.

Veronique adds that they will soon announce a deal with an as yet undisclosed expense partner which services small, medium enterprises with an expense card and expense platform.

She explains: ‘It’s super exciting news for Flux and the industry as it will be the UK’s first invisible business expensing service – customers can pay with their expense card at a Flux retailer and the receipt will automatically get uploaded to their expense platform. No photos, no emails.’

While local partnership talks are currently the main focus, going global is the most ambitious part of the plan for the Flux founders. 

Matty says: ‘We want to scale our network. We want to be the gold standard in the UK at the end of the year. 

‘We want to take our first step into international markets at the end of the year too.

‘By doing this we will be able to enrich more experiences around the world. Being global has been our thought process from day one.’

His advice to other entrepreneurs is to simply get ‘stuck in’. ‘It can be easy to spend a huge amount of time in planning but what we found that’s worked is to continuously try things out.

‘You need to understand that it may not work out. If you fail quickly you can learn from it and next time you can do it better. 

‘You don’t want to make mistakes when you start out as you’re worried about how this impacts customers, but my view is that you’ll get results much faster. This has been critical for our growth.’