I Own My Data (IOMD) is a startup aiming to eliminate the tedious step for consumers, so not only do you not have to create a password, or deal with Captcha, you also don’t get bombarded with follow-up promotional email or text communications. The advantage for merchants is offering an easier and faster way for people to shop on their sites. The company says that “Rather than people having to enter and re-enter personal information on countless sites, I Own My Data says it lets consumers manage, retrieve and save all of their online interactions, purchases and profiles only on their devices”.
Rohan Mahadevan said that “Node is the safest, fastest and most convenient way to transact online because it requires no central servers and consumer data doesn’t need to be stored anywhere else,”. Mahadevan, having spent 15 years at PayPal in a variety of senior roles including SVP of its international division, says. “You can actually have really fast checkout processes, and not worry about any hacking, or phishing or anything.”
“It’s similar to Amazon’s one-click purchases, but works across merchants, so they can rely less on a single platform”. “E-commerce is a very crowded space, with most companies solving symptoms of an underlying health problem associated with profile capture and management, payments and security. The problem is caused by the need to store information on millions of servers, which poses issues for both consumers and businesses. The massive paradigm shift is to keep all personal information on the consumer’s device. Solving the health problem alleviates the symptoms.” Node is emerging from stealth today, having raised $2.75 million in a seed funding round led by Neotribe Ventures, and including participation from executives and founders from companies such as Bill Me Later, Boku, Citicards, Facebook, Magento, Meta and PayPal.
CEO Mahadevan says “We can serve any merchant, anywhere, but we think those who have a big proportion of visitors who checkout as guests will be the first to truly love us. Merchants who sell cosmetics, specialty food, fashion, baby or pet products and other frequent, but not subscription products will benefit in the biggest and most immediate way.”
