This article was published on May 22, 2014

Pollen launches beta ‘velocity capital’ platform that pays developers after 7 days rather than 60


Pollen launches beta ‘velocity capital’ platform that pays developers after 7 days rather than 60

If you’re an app developer, you’ll be aware that not only do major app stores take a sizeable chunk of your revenues, the platforms also take their sweet time paying out the cash you’ve earned – 60 days or more in some cases.

However, Pollen wants to change that with its platform for delivering cash advances to developers every seven days.

The idea is that with more regular access to money, developers can speed up the growth of their business by reinvesting it in user acquisition campaigns or further development of the product. For the privilege of expedited payment, developers will have to give up a further 5 percent of revenues, on top of the (usually 30 percent) cut that the app stores take.

“95 percent of the revenue will go to the developers without delay. Developers apply to use the service and we perform a series of checks in the background. Once accepted into Pollen, we to access the developer’s sales data directly from the relevant app store, in a similar way to analytics services like App Annie or Distimo,” the company told TNW.

“Based on this data, Pollen will pay the developer each week, and will wait to receive funds directly from the app store provider. Pollen has developed an automated platform for developers to keep up with all activity on their account,” a spokesperson added.

Pollen said it expects to pay out around $150 million in ‘velocity capital’ to developers before the end of the year. It’s a smart idea – fronting the money to developers in exchange for a small slice of the revenues, and one that will likely appeal to smaller outfits. However, larger, more established businesses will likely already have a cash flow that’s stable enough to support growth organically without having to sacrifice an additional 5 percent of the total take.

Pollen is in closed beta now and accepting applications from interested testers in the US and UK. It aims to open the platform up more widely over the next two-to-three months, and is hoping to have more than 100 developers on board by the end of the beta period.

Pollen

Featured Image Credit – Shutterstock

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