Merchant-funded rewards provider BillShrink Inc. is expected to announce Wednesday it has changed its name to Truaxis Inc.
The name change reflects the company's focus on products and services that go beyond savings on bills, as its former name implied, says Schwark Satyavolu, the company's co-founder.
"The breadth of the platform has increased since we launched in 2007," Satyavolu says.
For example, the company recently launched a geolocation service that lets merchants identify nearby consumers they have already targeted with deals to entice them with even better offers. It will soon launch a reward program consolidation platform.
Under the BillShrink name, the Redwood City, Calif., company's main product has been Statement Rewards, which presents offers to consumers via their online banking statements.
Satyavolu says the name change has nothing to do with distinguishing itself from the host of other financial services companies such as BillFloat and Bill.com.
The name change did not surprise some industry analysts.
"Overall, [this is a] good move," says Ron Shevlin, a senior analyst at Aite Group LLC of Boston, because "shrinking bills is just one part of what the company does," he says.
The move also likely reflects Truaxis' shift to marketing its services financial institutions, rather than just to consumers, Shevlin says.
Others say they are a bit perplexed.
"What does Truaxis mean? It's not very clear [from the name] what they do," says Nicole Sturgill, research director at TowerGroup
Truaxis is also expected to announce Wednesday that its partnership with Jack Henry & Associates Inc., of Monnett, Mo., has gone live, and that its product is being used by "the majority" of the 2500 banks and 8 million customers in the Jack Henry network. Satyavolu did not specify the exact number.
"The [consumer] opt out rates have been very minimal," in the low single digits, Satyavolu says.
