FINALLY an app that can ACTUALLY split the bill 💸

The meal was delicious but now it’s time…to split the bill.

Do you put your card in? Do they?

There are plenty of apps to calculate the split and a few others to request other peoples’ portions of the split, but ultimately someone will have to put there card down and watch the grand total jump from their back account.

Until now.

Introducing: Recura

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Recura allows you to split the bill with your friends without having to request money or remember who owes what.

It’s simple: You setup the split in the app, ‘$20 for you and $20 for your friend’. Your friend accepts the ‘split’. Then you put down one Recura card and it’s charged for $40. $20 leaves your bank account, $20 leaves your friends’. It’s that easy.

It almost seems too good to be true, which is why I sat down with CEO Ryan Abazid to get answers to my most pressing questions.

The first word that popped into my head when Mr. Abazid appeared on my Google meet was: mature.

While young, he carried himself like a seasoned veteran of the corner office. Even his words were measured like an executive who had been through the ringer.

He explained to me the nuances of how the service works:

Does it have to be a physical card?

You can use a Recura-issued physical card or the NFC chip in your iPhone using Apple Pay

What is the point of having a Recura card?

It’s not like regular credit or debit cards. The card can only be charged for approved splits through the app

What happens if someone doesn’t have enough money in their bank account to cover their end of the split?

The split won’t go through and the card won’t be charged

Does the Recura have to use debit cards or can it connect to credit cards too?

Right now just debit cards but credit cards are coming soon

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Beyond the finer points about how the service works, I also wanted to learn more about Mr. Abazid and how he started the business.

It turns out, he thought of the idea when he was working in a sales position at T-Mobile.

The company had given him a free trial of YouTube TV, but once the trial ended it was time to pay up. Mr. Abazid used the service along with his dad, but when it came time for the two of them to split the bill things got…awkward.

If only there was a way to split the bill upfront instead of having to hound the other party after you’ve stomached the entire cost.

And that’s how Recura was born. Mr. Abazid recruiting two friends to run the technical side of the business and help get a prototype up and running while he manages partnerships and the investor side of things.

The trio works out of an office across from the famous Ford headquarters building in Detroit.

They’re currently working on a beta program that is about to release and then eventually a wider release to the public.

In our conversation, Mr. Abazid was excited about the beta and about the future of Recura.

Splitting payments solves a real pain point, he explained to me, but Recura, he said, has the potential to be so much more than a payment-splitting-app.

When asked about the future he said he envisions, “A financial suite for young adults”.

While the idea may sound a bit amorphous, it was refreshingly simple compared to the the web3 concoctions that some startups are cooking up these days.

In our conversation, there was no grand speech about Ai or blockchain or NFTs. Mr. Abazid was adamant about his focus on one thing:

“Crypto doesn’t really fit well with what we’re doing right now. We have to stay focused on what we’re working on right now…At the end of the day we just want to build out something cool, nice, and help some people, whether it’s rent or managing their money” 

While the vision is clear, it’s easier said than done.

The FinTech space has become fiercely competitive with Apple recently rolling out a BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) product as well as a major upgrade to Apple Cash that could pose a threat to apps like Venmo and CashApp.

Plus, despite his experience on the partnerships side of things in his previous roles, even the young CEO said, “the fact that I’m doing it myself it’s kind of scary”.

To fill in the gaps and learn about the unknown-unkwnowns, he is currently working to close their latest round and bring on more GTM and technical professionals in time for their anticipated launch in August.

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What do you think? Is Recura the future?

Note: Recura has asked me to participate in their beta, which I will be writing about once I try it out. Subscribe and stay tuned for part 2!