TapBase Introduces TapPay and TapWallet Mobile

Mobile payment startup TapBase has released two mobile payment applications for the iPhone: TapPay and TapWallet. The TapPay app enables merchants to accept credit card payments with their smartphone. Just like Square, there is an optional magnetic-stripe reader that connects to the iPhone via the headphone jack. Instead of swiping their card customers can also pay using the TapWallet app that can store credit card information as well as membership and loyalty cards. Read more…

Xsolla Partners With Openbucks for new Online Games Payment Option

Online games payment service provider Xsolla has partnered with Openbucks to integrate their Gift Card Payment Network to provide a new payment option for online games. The partnership allows users in the United States and Canada to spend money from gift cards of trusted retail brands (such as Subway, Burger King, Circle K, CITGO, and CVS/Pharmacy) for online games in-game items, subscriptions and more.

ETA Launches Mobile Payment Committee

The Electronic Transactions Association (ETA), an international trade association of the payments industry, launched its new Mobile Payments Committee to develop and implement industry-wide mobile payment solutions. All four big US mobile network operators – AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon – joined the ETA to participate in the Mobile Payment Committee. Other companies participating in the committee include American Express, Discover, MasterCard, Visa, Google, Capital One, PayPal, VeriFone, Intuit and First Data. Read more… 

Facebook Subscriptions Now Available

Facebook has rolled out subscriptions to all app developers on the social network. The subscriptions feature allows local currencies, different subscription plans and free trial periods. Customers can pay with their credit card or PayPal account. Facebook subscription payments look nice way for developers to monetize their apps on Facebook. Read more…

Starbucks, Square Partner for Mobile Payments

Coffee company Starbucks will partner with Mobile card payment startup Square. Starbucks will furthermore invest $25 million in Square and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz will join the board. Starting later this fall, Starbucks customers will be able to use to pay with Square at Starbucks stores across the US. Read more…

Paymentwall, a payment service provider specialized in digital content and virtual goods, has released a HTML5-based payment alternative to iTunes and Android based App markets. The new Paymentwall Mobile service enables developers to offer local payment options (such as: credit card, debit card, mobile, landline, prepaid, ATM, terminal, bank transfer, direct debit, offers …) to their customers in more than 200 countries.

Honor Gunday, Paymentwall CEO, commented “Although iTunes is a well executed, easy to use platform, the 30 percent fee the publishers need to swallow and the Western-oriented approach to monetizing only via credit card is not sustainable and HTML5 will emerge as the future of mobile application development.”

LevelUp Drops Mobile Payment Processing Fee

LevelUp, the mobile payment arm of SCVNGR, is dropping its payment processing fee to zero. LevelUp offers a QR code based mobile payment and reward app for iOS and Android devices. With LevelUp merchants can start marketing campaigns (such as offering a $5 credit to 100 new clients) to win new customers and create loyalty programs. When the customer redeems the offer, LevelUp charges the merchant 35% of the credit redeemed. Read more…

Starbucks Rolls out Mobile Payment App in Canada and the UK, Adds PayPal Support

Starbucks has launched its popular (last year Starbucks processed more than 26 million mobile transactions) loyalty and mobile payment app in the United Kingdom and Canada. The new version of the official Starbucks app also provides some new features such as PayPal support and an account history. The app enables customers to pay with their mobile phone and collect reward points at the coffee company’s participating stores. Read more…

Virtual Currency Startup Pocket Change Raises $5M

Google Ventures has led a $5 million Series A round of funding for Pocket Change, a virtual currency startup. The California-based company is working on a universal virtual currency that can be uses across multiple platforms. Read more…

Paysafecard Launches in Canada

Paysafecard’s prepaid payment service for online purchases is now also available in Canada. The prepaid online vouchers are especially popular for all kinds of micropayments. With the launch in Canada, Paysafecard is now available in 31 countries around the globe. Just recently Paysafecard was acquired by Skrill, one of Europe’s largest payment service providers for approximately €140 million.

Cashlog Launches Android In-App Payment Solution

Mobile payment company Cashlog has released a Software Development Kit (SDK) for Android, which enables developers and digital merchants to integrate 1 click in-app purchases.

The SDK features an automatic number recognition and works for any SIM-based device not only in the 3G network but also via Wi-Fi. Cashlog is available Italy, Spain, Germany and France and processed more than 1.7million transactions in May 2012. Read more…

Ogone Adds Mobile Payment Solution to its Portfolio

Payment service provider Ogone has launched an in-app payment library for Android and iOS devices. The new service completes Ogone’s existing online payment services. When integrated into the app, Ogone’s payment library enables purchases within the app without redirecting the user to the phone’s mobile browser.

Klarna Enters Austrian Market

Sweden-based payment service provider Klarna is expanding into Austria. Klarna will be commercially available in Austria in fall this year. Klarna offers a e-commerce payment service, with Klarna, online merchants can offer their customers the option to pay after the delivery of the goods. Currently Klarna handles transactions worth €2.3 billion through 15,000 connected e-stores annually. Austria will be the seventh country in Europe where Klarna’s is available.

Micro Payment: Zynga and AmEx Introduce Online Virtual Rewards Program

American Express and Zynga join forces and launch an interesting online virtual rewards program: Zynga Serve Rewards. Players of Zynga’s social game FarmVille can earn rewards when using a co-branded American Express prepaid card. The service is based on AmEx’s online payment platform Serve. The digital wallet service was launched in March and integrates various payment methods into one online account. Similar reward programs will be introduced in additional games over the course of the year. Read more…

Micro Payment: Google adds In-app Subscriptions to Android

One year after starting in-app billing on Google Play, the official Android app marketplace, Google now supports in-app subscriptions. As of now, developers can start to sell monthly or annual subscriptions from inside of their apps. Google manages the transactions; developers only have to set the price point and billing interval. Read more…

Alternative Payment: PayPal Continues to Expand into the Retail World

PayPal is trying to become a major player for in-store payments. A new agreement with VeriFone and Equinox Payments, both are large point-of-sale terminal providers, enables more customers to pay with PayPal at retail stores across the U.S. The company is also partnering with 15 U.S. retailers that are going to implement PayPal’s retail payment solution. Read more…

Dwolla is an online payment platform that allows users to send and receive funds directly from other users. The startup was founded in 2008 in Des Moines, the capital of the U.S. state of Iowa, by Ben Milne and Shane Neuerberg with the idea to move funds cheap and directly between users. In June 2011 Dwolla passed the $1 million in transactions per week milestone and is now processing more than $1 million per day. The company raised a $5 million Series B round of financing led by Union Square Ventures in February this year and most recently won Ashton Kutcher as investor.

The name Dwolla is a conjunction of “Dollar” and “web”; a good description of what Dwolla is: an online, cash-based payment method.

How does it work?

Dwolla is not a bank or credit card processor. The company provides a digital wallet and payment network much like PayPal. Transactions are made directly and instantaneous between Dwolla accounts, without using the credit card or ACH (=Automated Clearing House, the electronic network for financial transactions in the U.S.) infrastructure. Dwolla is partnering with U.S. bank Veridian Credit Union to securely deposit the funds of their users.

To use the service, customers have to sign up for a free Dwolla account that can be linked with a U.S. bank account for money deposits and withdrawals (takes 2-4 business days). Once the funds are transferred to their Dwolla account, users can send money to other Dwolla users or their social media contacts (non-Dwolla users have to sign up to claim the money).

Fees

Unlike credit cards and PayPal, which usually charge 3%-5% for each transaction, Dwolla charges a flat fee of just $0.25. Micro-transactions less than $10 are free. By default the recipient is responsible for paying the fee, but there is also the option that the sender takes over the fee (e.g. for charity donations). There are no additional fees, even for merchant accounts.

Merchant Features

Business can sign up for a merchant account to accept payments through the Dwolla network based on their Dwolla ID or email address. Dwolla provides innovative solutions for retail merchants as well as for online shops. Users can locate nearby retail stores that accept Dwolla via Dwolla Spots or Proxi. To verify the incoming transactions Dwolla provides a web-based Dwolla Kiosk App. Check out the embedded video to see how Dwolla Spots work:

For online merchants Dwolla offers plugins for all main e-commerce shopping platforms and an API to their payment gateway.

The downside is that Dwolla is only available within the U.S. The company is focusing on national expansion and has currently no plans to expand internationally.

While Klarna enables online merchants to offer the option to pay by invoice to their customers, another payment startup from Sweden focusses on innovative mobile payments. Stockholm-based iZettle provides a mobile payment service that allows businesses and individuals to accept credit and debit card payments using their iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.

The company was founded in April 2010 by Jacob de Geer and Magnus Nilsson and recently received €8.2 million in funding led by Index Ventures.

Availability

Since its launch in Sweden last summer, iZettle has attracted 25,000 active users and has grown the point of sale market in Sweden by roughly 15%. The service is also available in Denmark, Finland and Norway with more to come in 2012.

How it works

iZettle’s service combines a small card reader and a smartphone application. The card reader, which is attached to the bottom of the device, allows users to take payments from chip-enabled credit or debit cards. The service is compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). No sensitive data is stored on the mobile device or the card reader, and all data traffic is encrypted. Unlike Square or PayPal Here iZettle is also EMV (Europay, MasterCard and VISA) approved and supports chip-enabled cards, which are very popular in Europe.

Pricing

iZettle has no set up fee or monthly fee. For each transaction iZettle charges 2.75% of the transaction volume plus €0.15 (including bank fees).

In a nutshell

iZettle provides an innovative solution for accepting credit and debit cards on the go. Unfortunately the service is only available in the Nordics so far.

Check out the video to see how iZettle works:

Irish mobile payment start-up boxPAY has opened on office in San Francisco, California and is now offering mobile carrier billing in the US and Canada.

boxPAY provides Premium-SMS and direct carrier billing solutions, enabling e-businesses to charge their customers for digital content through a mobile phone instead of a credit card. The company offers in-app, one-touch billing on the Android platform, as well as subscription billing in more than 40 countries.

“The move to North America was crucial to boxPAY’s global expansion because of the significant amount of cellular subscribers in Canada and the US. We needed to offer our merchants from all over the globe access to these 350 million+ customers, especially because of the fact that mobile users here are comfortable with mobile payments,” commented boxPAY’s Co-Founder Gavin McConnon.

Alternative payment provider TrialPay has raised more than $40 million in its latest round of funding by Visa, Greylock Partners, and others. The company plans to use the fresh money to expand into new markets.

TrialPay provides an advertising platform that enables customers to pay for goods and services by completing an offer (trying or buying a product) from an advertiser. For example, online players can sign up for a DVD rental service to get virtual currency in return. Offer-based payment services are particular popular in social games as they help developers to monetize users which are not willing to pay for virtual currency.

Check out the video how see how TrialPay works: