M-payment: American Express Invests in iZettle

• American Express is joining MasterCard among iZettle’s list of investors, as the start-up announces a new fundraising (without mentioning its amount).

• This investment comes in addition to the previously collected 25 million euros and is to finance new product development as well as iZettle’s globalisation projects. The start-up is already testing its solution in the UK where commercial launches are scheduled starting this November.    

Source: Press release

• This support from American Express, and MasterCard’s support last June for their series A fundraising, should help the developer overcoming recent difficulties after Visa’s blockade (for compliance-related issues). This decision compelled iZettle to stop processing Visa card transactions in Denmark, Finland and Norway.

• Despite this setback and a growing number of EMV-compliant competitors in Europe (Payleven in France, mPowa in the UK or SumUp in Germany), iZettle says it has improved by more than 10% its number of accepting merchants since its launch in August 2011.

• Furthermore, in Europe competition is no longer confined to manufacturers and start-ups as mobile carriers are also starting to make their moves in the acceptance market. O2 for instance has just launched its own PINpad (costing 150 pounds with commissions set to 2.95% or 0.75 pound for debit card transactions).