Mobile Cash Collection: Square Plans European Implantation
- US-based Square, focusing on mobile cash collection via Apple and Android terminals, is planning to set foot in Europe starting 2012. Transactions are initiated with the eponymous mag-stripe card reader and cannot exceed 60 US dollars.
- This announcement follows a 100 million dollars roundtable which enabled this player to be valorised at one billion dollars with the help of Kleiner Perkins funds. It also follow Visa’s investment in its capital (the amount of its share has not been disclosed). These investments should allow it to carry on expanding in the US and attend the needs of about 27 million small merchants (who could not accept card transactions).
- Square asserts it now processes four million dollars transactions every day (compared to two million dollars a few months ago) and hopes this amount will again double by end October 2011.
- These evolutions again illustrate the growth potential of the start-up despite the availability of other rival cash collection solutions. It also asserts its will to expand internationally even if the security of its readers is being put to question, as VeriFone Systems insisted on skimming risks.
- The company also has to face controversies regarding the development of the EMV standard in the US; the start-up committed to design safer readers.
- The switch to EMV will be necessary for their solutions to be adopted in Europe where smartcards are leading the market. To this respect, in Europe, Sweden-based iZettle directly challenges Square: its new mobile acceptance solution for iOS devices (iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch) is EMV and PCI-DSS compliant.