GlobalCollect Integrates Mobile Payment Service BOKU

GlobalCollect, a payment service provider based in the Netherlands, is integrating BOKU’s mobile payment platform, enabling online merchants to offer mobile payment as payment method. With BOKU customers can pay for online purchases by entering their mobile phone number and confirm via a SMS message. They will be billed directly via their mobile provider. The partnership shows that carrier billing has become a mainstream payment method for all kinds of digital goods and services.

iZettle Secures €25M, Eyes International Growth

iZettle has secured €25 million ($31.4 million) in a Series B round of funding. The new round was led by Greylock Partners and Northzone and joined by credit card giant MasterCard among others. According to iZettle the investment will be used to introduce iZettle’s mobile payment service in additional markets in Europe and around the world. iZettle is commercially available in northern Europe and is currently tested for release in the U.K. Read more…

Square Now Processes $6B in Payments, Surpasses 2M Users

Mobile payment company Square continues to grow: the company reported that it has now more 2 million users – only six month after it surpassed 1 million users – and is processing more than $6 billion in annual payments. Those are impressive numbers that underline how fast the mobile card payment market is growing. Read more…

Mobile payment company BOKU just raised $35 Million in funding from Telefonica, NEA (New Enterprise Associates) and existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures, Index Ventures and Khosla Ventures. The fresh money will be used to expand the new BOKU Accounts platform.

BOKU recently partnered with MasterCard to expand its payments technology to cover e-commerce and retail point-of-sale. The new BOKU Accounts service allows subscribers to make payments online, in-app, and in-store via NFC.

The investment shows the increased interest in mobile payments: “Payments are going mobile and we want to be at the forefront of this trend. In addition to the investment we are also embarking on a global partnership with BOKU to enhance our operator billing capabilities and the overall payment experience through our future mobile wallet services,” said Matthew Key, Chairman & CEO of Telefonica Digital.

Mobile payments have been one of the main topics at this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. The congress is organized by the GSM Association (GSMA), the global industry association of mobile operators and related companies. It is not just about presenting the latest mobile devices; it is also about showing the future of mobile technology.

Mobile Payment

Mobile Payments are broadening outside of digital goods and services: Carrier billing provider BOKU announced a partnership with MasterCard to expand its payments technology to cover e-commerce and retail point-of-sale. The new BOKU Accounts service allows subscribers to make payments online, in-app, and in-store anywhere MasterCard is accepted. At the same time Facebook is starting to cut out mobile payment providers of the transaction cycle. Facebook’s CTO Bret Taylor announced during his MWC Keynote that Facebook is partnering with major mobile network operators (including AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Orange and Telefónica) and will provide its own carrier billing solution. At present Facebook uses third party providers such as BOKU or Zong to process mobile payments.

Traditional financial service companies are going mobile:

• Visa and Vodafone announced at the conference to join forces and develop a mobile payment platform based on Visa prepaid accounts.
• Money transfer giant Western Union (in cooperation with mobile operator WIND) is going to launch a mobile money transfer service in Italy.

Innovative mobile payment services presented their latest developments:

• iZettle’s mobile payment solution that allows users to accept card payments using their iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch gains traction and is expanding into tree new countries.
• Mobile payment start-up boxPAY launched and presented an in-app payment service for Google’s Android platform.

Near Field Communication

Near field communication (NFC) services are gaining momentum and have become one of the trending topics at the MWC this year. The GSMA has recently published a set of industry specifications to enable the development of secure and ubiquitous mobile NFC services.

• Smartcard and digital security companies such as Gemalto and Giesecke & Devrient showcased their NFC-services at the MWC.
• The Logic Group and ViVOtech announced to work together to enable customers to shop via their NFC-enabled smartphones.
• Mobile payment joint venture ISIS has teamed-up with BarclayCard, Capital One, and Chase.