Mastercard is bringing cashless payments to Hong Kong’s education sector through a seamless FinTech and EduTech platform, which enables the city’s first-ever integrated education app with multiple in-app digital payments.
Through an exclusive partnership with local education app developer GRWTH, Mastercard will bring hassle-free, fast, safe, and convenient cashless payments experience to schools and parents. The enhanced app integrates digital payments, account reconciliation, student profiles, home-school communication, as well as school administration into one single platform.
The partnership addresses the pain points faced by parents in daily school payments situations, such as spending a lot of time preparing cash or issuing checks, keeping track of expenses that are often paid in small amounts, and students missing out opportunities to join school activities due to losing cash or checks. All school expenses can be settled via the in-app digital payments function, thereby eliminating the need to deal with cumbersome cash or checks. Parents can also easily track their school payments anytime, anywhere, giving them greater peace of mind.
Schools also benefit from saving massive administrative time and costs that come with handling the complex payment procedures. Teachers can also save time spent during class manually collecting payments from students. The app offers an exclusive backend reconciliation system, which provides a direct and convenient way to keep track of payments. This includes simplifying reconciliation procedures via transaction categorization and real-time transaction tracking as well as report generation. It relieves the pressure for schools in handling school expenses, allowing more quality teaching time.
“We are proud to partner with Mastercard to attain our goal of enriching the life of our children through technology. GRWTH links up students, school administrators and parents and provide them with powerful and innovative tools for better home-school communication and organization,” said Adam Chan, co-founder and CEO, GRWTH. “By connecting the education, finance and technology sectors, we aspire to push forward the development of digital payments in Hong Kong.”
“We are excited to turn a new chapter for the Hong Kong education sector. By bringing together EduTech and FinTech, Mastercard aspires to alleviate the pressure of handling large amounts of cash and checks for schools and parents, not only by providing them with fast, safe and convenient cashless payments experiences but also by helping them devote more time and energy into students’ growth and development,” said Helena Chen, managing director, Hong Kong and Macau, Mastercard. “Through Mastercard’s technology, we can truly lay the foundations for the future of our next generation, and push forward the development of Hong Kong as a smart city.”
As the exclusive partner, Mastercard provides a one-click, secure digital payments solution. Parents simply need to store their Mastercard card details only once to enjoy the seamless, one-click experience for all future payments. To provide even more convenience, the new in-app payments service is not only available for Mastercard credit and debit cardholders, but also to Mastercard prepaid cardholders. With the world’s fastest and most reliable global payments network, Mastercard cardholders can enjoy the same robust, multi-layered security protections that comes with paying with a Mastercard.
GRWTH has recently launched the service to 10 schools in Hong Kong as part of a pilot program* and plans to gradually expand the service to all kindergartens, primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong. “Our school aspires to bring changes to the education sector by leveraging technology and innovation. We are excited to be one of the 10 pilot schools to introduce a cashless payments option for parents,” said Chu Tsz Wing, chief principal, St. Hilary’s Primary School & VNSAA ST. HILARY’S SCHOOL.
Apart from its in-app payment function, the GRWTH app includes tools for home-school communication and school administration, and will soon integrate the ability to pay vendors such as extra-curricular activities and school service providers, allowing parents to make instant and direct payment. The “GRWTH Community” is made up of over 100 NGOs and commercial organizations in Hong Kong. Parents can choose personalized extracurricular activities for their children based on the multi-intelligence analysis function in the app’s talent pool. The GRWTH app is available for free download via Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
*The 10 pilot schools are:
Buddhist Lim Kim Tian Memorial Primary School
Buddhist Wing Yan School
ELCHK Ma On Shan Lutheran Primary School
Fung Kai No.1 Primary School
Gloria Creative Kindergarten and Gloria Creative Kindergarten (Sheung Shui)
Lok Sin Tong Leung Wong Wai Fong Memorial School
N.T.W.J.W.A. LTD. Leung Sing Tak Primary School
St. Edward’s Catholic Primary School
St. Hilary’s Primary School and VNSAA ST. HILARY’S SCHOOL
The ELCHK Wo Che Lutheran School