TEL AVIV — PayKey, an intriguing Israeli startup that lets banks offer payments on any social media platform — and we mean any — won the demo contest at FinAi News Israel 2016 here this week.

PayKey beat out 12 other finalists at the DEMOvation Challenge at FinAi News Israel, which is presented by this blog. The runner-up was Verifyoo, which provides a non-intrusive, revocable, active behavioral based solution, used as a replacement for other login methods. Revocability, of course, is something TouchID and many biometric solutions cannot offer.

PayKey addresses a unique challenge: allowing banks to offer payments services within popular social media platforms, like WhatsApp or Instagram, without forcing the FI to work through (read: compensate) those platforms.

PayKey’s solution is ingenious: It relies on the mobile phone’s keyboard to facilitate the payments.

Anyone who has added one of those bundles of emojis knows that adding a keyboard is no big deal. But PayKey realized that adding keyboards is not just about being able to ? ? ? ? ⛱ a message. It could also add functionality.

The functionality PayKey adds is a payment button, and that button can be branded to any FI. Think of, say, a little Chase symbol on your mobile’s keyboard that when you touch it, you initiate a payment to the person with whom you are Whatsapp-ing.

One of the judges at FinAi News Israel called it “really slick.” They also praised PayKey’s presentation skills.

The much-lauded PayKey won cash prizes from Bank Leumi, the host partner of FinAi News Israel, and FinAi News, as well as bragging rights.

PayKey was founded in 2014 and has raised $400,000 of funding to date, according to Crunchbase.