Mobile Payment Magazine

Payfone and Mobile Accord Partner for Mobile Donation Channel

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Payfone, a leading mobile payment processing service, and Mobile Accord, an innovator and leader in mobile technology for nonprofit organizations, today announced a strategic partnership to expand the mobile donation channel for nonprofits and non-governmental entities worldwide. Through the partnership, nonprofits will be able to expand the power and reach of mobile donation offerings through alternative payment options allowing donations in real-time from any device, such as PC, smartphone, tablet or Wi-Fi, via Mobile Accord’s mobile giving platform, mGive.

“As the premier provider of mobile giving, it is absolutely critical we offer the nonprofit community a secure technology platform that ensures real-time delivery of safe, secure donations with accurate reporting and visibility into all transactions,” said Nim Patel, CEO of Mobile Accord. “Our goal is to offer donors across the globe the ability to make charitable donations from any device at any time. Through our partnership with Payfone, we are able to continue delivering on that promise.”

Mobile Accord’s mGive platform empowers individuals and entire countries to facilitate change using its revolutionary scalable services including mobile giving. mGive has been the standard for mobile giving since 2008, resulting in over 7,000 nonprofit mobile campaigns worldwide and is the platform of choice for high-volume campaigns like fundraising for relief efforts in Haiti and Japan, raising over $46 million in donations. Mobile Accord continues to work with nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations to enhance mobile fundraising and engagement for social good.

“Through Mobile Accord and mGive, its state-of-the-art mobile giving technology platform that is specifically targeted to support nonprofits, we can offer nonprofits one of the most robust and secure methods of conducting donations from any device – an industry first,” said Rodger Desai, chief executive officer, Payfone. “We are pleased to be working with the leader in mobile giving, and look forward to delivering an entirely new method of mobile donation that offers greater ease, flexibility and security, while opening up the global opportunities around philanthropic giving.”

Payfone is unique in leveraging the existing assets of mobile operators for directly connected payment authorization and processing. This approach distinguishes Payfone from other competitors. Payfone’s unique IP focuses on delivering the best user experience, while closely managing fraud using new factors of authentication that are inherent in the mobile operator networks. This translates into one of the most secure and frictionless user experience, across any device. Payfone’s ability to directly integrate with the operator’s network and intelligently identify a subscriber’s profile, makes it the only company capable of securely streamlining the entire mobile payments process.

Fortumo Selects Payfone for Direct Mobile Billing

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Payfone, a leading mobile payment processing service, and Fortumo, a leading provider of mobile payments, today announced that Fortumo has selected Payfone to power the direct billing option for its in-app purchasing SDK. This direct billing mobile payment method offers better reliability and higher security as well as better payouts for developers. Through the partnership, Fortumo’s clients will be able to provide consumers with the ability to make safe and secure mobile payments in real-time from any device, such as PC, smartphone, tablet or Wi-Fi.

“We are excited to work with Payfone because of their deep integration with mobile operators’ billing systems,” said Rain Rannu, co-founder of Fortumo. “This in turn will allow us to continue to provide the highest converting in-app purchasing with more payment options for our clients.”

Payfone’s Mobile Commerce Service is directly integrated into the mobile operator’s network, which provides the ability to intelligently identify a consumer’s profile in the system and offers true payment authorization and authentication. Payfone’s Device DNA authenticates the consumer across a wide variety of parameters during the transaction, ensuring they get exactly what they paid for. By pairing the Device DNA to each transaction, Payfone is able determine if a transaction is from a lost or stolen mobile device or if the owner of the mobile account has changed. This translates into one of the most secure and frictionless user experiences, across any device.

Fortumo’s in-app purchasing SDK for Android is the preferred international monetization tool for some of the most popular mobile game and app developers. Payment is done in a single click with no login or registration required. Fortumo’s in-app purchasing library supports both direct mobile operator billing and premium SMS, automatically selecting the best option depending on country, operator and user. It comes with built-in support for consumable and non-consumable items and virtual currencies. Fortumo’s in-app purchasing SDK is available in 61 countries, 22 languages and 42 currencies for any developer for free at http://fortumo.com/in-app-payments

“We are pleased to be working with Fortumo to provide their clients with the most robust in-app mobile payments solution on the market,” said Rodger Desai, chief executive officer, Payfone. “With this partnership, Payfone’s technology will be leveraged for some of the largest mobile payment implementations worldwide.”

Source: PR Newswire

Payfone Appoints Matthew Tucker as CEO

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Payfone, a mobile payment processing service backed by American Express and Verizon, announced the appointment of veteran growth-stage company executive Matthew Tucker to the position of Chief Operating Officer. Tucker will drive the company’s global expansion and mobile payments adoption worldwide.

Tucker was most recently the President of Recyclebank, the Wall Street Journal’s 2011 number four-ranked “Next Big Thing” venture-backed company. Tucker brings to Payfone significant background in leveraging global relationships to successfully build and scale growth stage companies. Prior to Recyclebank, Tucker was CEO of Rely Software, and the first head of sales and marketing at Web-based banking pioneer LendingTree. [Read more…]

Verizon Wireless and Payfone to Implement Verizon Mobile Payment System

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Verizon Wireless and Payfone, a leading mobile payment processing service, today announced the companies are working together to bring a new mobile payment system to Verizon Wireless customers. When available, the service will allow Verizon Wireless customers to make online purchases from their smartphones, tablets and PCs using numerous payment methods, including charging purchases to their monthly wireless statements or using traditional payment methods through financial institution partners. [Read more…]

American Express and Payfone Partner for Global Mobile Checkout

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American Express  and Payfone  today announced a strategic alliance to create and power a new global mobile checkout service. As part of the agreement, Payfone will combine its advanced mobile authorization and payment services with American Express’ recently launched digital payments platform, Serve.

Working together, Serve and Payfone will provide consumers with the ability to make purchases from online merchants using their mobile phone number at checkout. Consumers will be able to link their mobile numbers to a variety of payment methods including their pre-or-postpaid mobile operator account, as well as via a customer’s Serve account.

“This alliance brings together Serve’s unified online, mobile and real-world functionality with Payfone’s advanced mobile authorization and payment services to deliver a seamless payment solution,” said Dan Schulman, Group President, Enterprise Growth, American Express. “The alliance is an important next step for the international roll out of Serve. We look forward to working with Payfone as we evolve the Serve platform to provide the most advanced payment solutions for buyers and sellers, while setting new standards in security, simplicity and reliability.”

Payfone can leverage the existing assets of mobile operators, such as the global SS7 signaling network for directly connected payment authorization and processing. This approach distinguishes Payfone from other competitors.

Payfone’s IP focuses on driving merchant’s sales conversion and revenue yield while managing fraud using new factors of authentication that are inherent in the mobile operator networks. For consumers, it means greater choice in payment methods and the most frictionless user experience, across any device.

“This relationship will be a defining force in the industry. By teaming up with American Express’ new digital payments platform, Serve, we are not only delivering greater choice to consumers and merchants, with one of the most comprehensive and advanced e-wallets in the industry, we are also enabling mobile operators to participate in the transaction flow and benefit from an entirely new revenue source,” said Rodger Desai, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Payfone. “Over 5 billion people worldwide currently have mobile phones, however less than 2 billion have credit cards. It’s our goal to make the mobile phone number the new accepted way to pay. We look forward to working with American Express and our mobile operator partners in defining and driving the mobile payments industry.

Source: Business Wire

Hottest Mobile Payment Startups

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Here’s a preliminary list of the hottest mobile payment startups.  Feel free to add to the conversation:

Carrier Billing

Purchase in App (not billed via carrier)

  • Apple (iTunes)

Contactless / Mobile Contactless:

P2P Transfer

Mobile Checkout

China

  • UMPay
  • SmartPay
  • LianLian

India

  • Paymate

Philippines

  • Globe GCASH

Japan

  • Mobile Suica
  • Edy

Reference: GusFundler

Payfone

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Payfone brings payment processing, telco, and web 2.0 expertise to mobile commerce. The company has rebuilt mobile commerce using their unique intellectual property, and established strategic partnerships with leading telco network operators.

Payfone is a member of the GSMA and is based in New York, NY. [Read more…]