Ingenico acquires SoftPOS Phos

The acquisition, announced on Tuesday, March 28, 2023, will give Ingenico access to Phos' point-of-sale solution (SoftPoS) tools, which they say is a future-proof solution.

FACTS 

• Phos, founded in 2018, enables merchants to accept payments on Android smartphones, eliminating the need for a separate card reader.

• SoftPoS technology turns smartphones or tablets into payment terminals while meeting payment security standards.

• Ingenico plans to integrate Phos into a device-independent payments-as-a-service (PPaaS) platform, offering acquirers, payment service providers and independent software vendors. 

• The news comes two weeks after Ingenico announced the appointment of a new CEO. Laurent Blanchard, the former CEO of POS platform Cegid, will become COO of Ingenico on April 3.

CHALLENGES

• SoftPoS a solution for the future: Giulio Montemagno (CEO of PPaaS for Ingenico), said: "Our customers and partners around the world have clearly identified SoftPoS as one of the biggest opportunities they see today. They see SoftPoS as a strategic option to engage with new customer segments and develop and test innovative use cases at scale, with minimal additional investment in technology and distribution."

• Meeting the needs of small merchants: Ingenico's purchase of Phos comes at a time when small merchants must choose between adopting digital payment capabilities or losing customers. The government and large digital platforms are making multiple announcements about digitizing small businesses, but the reality is that the process is costly and time-consuming.

• Enabling mobile salespeople at the point of sale: with SoftPos technology, business customers can equip their sales force with tablet devices to accept payments on the shelf, reducing lines while improving the customer experience.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• According to research conducted by PYMNTS and Cybersource, which surveyed more than 13,300 consumers and more than 3,100 merchants in Brazil, India, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States:

  • Consumers are not finding the digital features they value when shopping at SMBs.

  • In the U.S. and U.K. (22% and 25%, respectively), SMBs say they have not yet adopted a digital wallet, even though consumers are increasingly using this payment method.

  • SMBs are paying more attention to contactless payments and upgrades, with 29% planning to add contactless payment cards and 26% planning to upgrade to contactless payments in the next 3 years.

• The SoftPOS space is seen as a dynamic and growing market with many payment features in both large retailer departments and small merchants. The installed base of SoftPoS devices worldwide is expected to grow from 3.1 million in 2022 to nearly 12 million in 2027 according to the press release.