Square announced today that venture capitalist Vinod Khosla will join its board of directors. Khosla is already an investor in the mobile payment platform via his venture firm Khosla Ventures, which led Square’s initial financing round and participated in the Series B round last January. Square has raised a total of $37.5 million from Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital, Sequoia Capital and Visa since its founding in February 2009. [Read more…]
Apple and Square to Partner for iPhone 5 Mobile Payments?
One of the most common iPhone 5 rumours is about Near Field Communication (NFC), the technology that allows mobile payments with a wave or “tap” of a device. Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter and mobile payment company Square, is now officially available in the iPhone store.
Radu Tyrsina at IT Pro Portal, “Square seems to be a pretty comfortable way to perform mobile payments. The device that one uses to perform the card credit swipe is a small square-shaped object that can be attached to an iPhone, iPad or other smart device to perform the transaction. This throws into doubt whether the iPhone 5 will come with NFC technology after all.”
via ITProPortal.com.
Square Lowers Merchant Transaction Fee
As competition to sign up merchants heats up, mobile payment company Square has announced it will drop the $0.15 transaction fee that it had been charging customers. There will still be a charge ofz 2.75% of the transaction cost, but Square’s biggest competitor, Intuit GoPayment, currently charges 2.7% plus $0.15 per transaction, or 3.7% plus $0.15 if the credit card is entered manually.
via Business Insider.
Visa Interested in Mobile Payment Company Square?
There was a very complimentary and “loving” Valentine’s day post about Jack Dorsey’s mobile payment company Square on Visa’s corporate blog. Why is Visa posting such a piece? According to Venturebeat, there are several possible reasons:
“First, Visa may be starting to understand that businesses are continuing to tailor to the mobile consumer. If you want to sell to the mobile consumer, you may have to be mobile. Second, the blog was written by Visa Corporate Relations and might be looking to strike a partnership. Though interestingly, Square is using a Visa card in its demo image see image above. Enabling purchases to be versatile and available anywhere could greatly increase Visa’s attractiveness to both businesses and consumers.Lastly, perhaps Visa is looking to get on Square’s radar for an acquisition.”
via VentureBeat.
Hottest Mobile Payment Startups
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
- Obopay
- PayPal Mobile
- Venmo
Mobile Checkout
- Square
- Verifone
China
- UMPay
- SmartPay
- LianLian
India
- Paymate
Philippines
- Globe GCASH
Japan
- Mobile Suica
- Edy
Reference: GusFundler
Jack Dorsey’s Mobile Payment Company Square Gets Times Square Billboard
Square, the mobile payment company co-founded by Jack Dorsey, has fittingly put a big billboard up in New York’s Times Square. Such aggressive marketing is a big change from the San Francisco-based company’s past strategy. Last week, COO Keith Rabois told Fast Company of the difficulties of creating awareness for the young startup. “Not everyone knows about Square, but everyone should,” he said. “Our job is to communicate that, and some of that communication–particularly when we’re talking about communicating to 180 million Americans–cost some amount of money.”
And at the time, it was money Square wasn’t necessarily willing to drop. According to Rabois, Square’s marketing budget in January: a measly $3,000. That’s a far cry from the tens of thousands of dollars a Times Square advertisement typically costs, though a Square spokesperson tells us the billboards were actually a gift to the company and didn’t cost them anything.
via Fast Company.
Square Inc. Signing Up 30,000+ New Accounts Per Month
Jessica Guynn of the Los Angeles Times interviewed Square COO Keith Rabois about Square’s latest round of funding, which according to some sources puts the company valuation at over $240 million. According to Rabois, the company has “been signing up 30,000 to 40,000 new accounts per month and the pace is accelerating.” Not bad!
Square provides a new platform to accept debit and credit cards on a mobile devices. The Square product is a small (square) piece of hardware that attaches to mobile devices (e.g., smartphone, laptop). It’s basically a small card reader that allows merchants to swipe a customer’s credit card and complete a mobile transaction from virtually anywhere.
Before the company launched, Square Inc. raised $10 million, with a valuation of $40 million. The lead investor of the $10 million round was Khosla Ventures.
At first blush the current $240 million valuation may seem rich for an enterprise that launched just over a year ago, but given that one of the company’s co-founders is Jack Dorsey, best known as the creator of Twitter, a blockbuster success is not out of the question.
In the Los Angeles Times blog post, Guynn asks: “How do you increase awareness of Square?”
According to Dorsey, “Historically the way people have found out about Square is that they pay a merchant at the farmers market with it and decide they want to get it themselves or they read about it on Twitter or in media coverage. But we have not engaged in traditional marketing campaigns. We are going to invest in marketing. You will see that go live in January. It’s a big task to ensure that the 180 million people who carry plastic in their wallets know about Square.How has adoption of Square grown since October, when you launched to the public?We have been signing up 30,000 to 50,000 new accounts per month and the pace is accelerating.” (via: Lost Angeles Times)
Square Versus Intuit GoPayment: Mobile Payment Comparison
For business that want to accept credit card payments through their smartphones, there are quite a few choices available. Two leading contenders are Square and Intuit’s GoPayment. Both services offer this feature, but there are some differences that may sway your decision on which one is best for you.
For example, GoPayment requires a credit check, square does not. Intuit’s free reader supports the iPhone, and Square currently supports only Android or IOS devices.
Business Insider provides a good side-to-side comparison chart of these two services.
More information: Business Insider.
Jack Dorsey’s Square Mobile Payments Company Raises $27.5 Million in New Funding
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s mobile payments startup, called Square, is in the process of raising a new round of funding at a valuation of more than $200 million, according to TechCrunch. The online technology blog cites Square’s general manager Keith Rabois as indicating that Square raised $27.5 million in new funding, with Sequoia Capital leading the round.
TechCrunch says they’ve heard that sources familiar with the matter say Square’s valuation in the round was approximately $240 million.
via TechCrunch
Square
Square is a revolutionary service that enables anyone to accept credit cards anywhere. Square offers an easy to use, free credit card reader that plugs into a phone or iPad. It’s simple to sign up. There is no extra equipment, complicated contracts, monthly fees or merchant account required.
Co-founded by Jim McKelvey and Jack Dorsey in 2009, the company is headquartered in San Francisco with additional offices in Saint Louis and New York City.
More information: Square.
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