PayPal buys Mobile Payment startup Paydiant

PayPal is an American international Digital wallet based e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the internet. Online money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to paying with traditional paper methods, such as checks and money orders. PayPal is one of the world’s largest internet payment companies. The company operates as an acquirer, performing payment processing for online vendors, auction sites and other commercial users, for which it charges a fee.

The eBay payment unit plans to acquire Paydiant, a payments startup that licenses a technology platform used by big retail chains to create their own branded mobile wallet apps. PayPal will pay around $280 Million for the startup. Founded in 2010, Paydiant white label platform is used by Subway and other retailers and banks to add payment, loyalty, and digital coupon capabilities to their own apps. Its customer list also includes MCX, a consortium of big box retailers led by Walmart that says it will launch its mobile wallet app this year.

Competition in the mobile wallet sector is heating up with the launch of Apple Pay, Samsung offering Samsung Pay beginning this summer and Google teaming up with Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile to have its Google Wallet payment service built into Android phones sold by those carriers. EBay has been planning to spin off its PayPal payment business in the second half of this year.

In 2013, PayPal had acquired mobile payment service Venmo. PayPal has also announced that its Here card reader for mobile payments will soon support the wireless payment technology. The NFC enabled version of Here will pair with phones via Bluetooth, and supports traditional chip and PIN methods. The new NFC enabled PayPal Here Chip and PIN card reader, which will start rolling out in the UK and Australia this summer, and in the US later this year.

iKaaz launches mobile payment platform

Bangalore-based mobile payments solutions provider, iKaaz Software Pvt Ltd has launched a platform to facilitate quick and easy payments for enterprises as well as consumers. iKaaz consumers wallet offers banks, operators, and merchants a mobile wallet to their customers, while its consumer centric platform iKaaz M-POS can replace expensive POS equipment with just a feature phone that settles payments electronically.

The company also offers an app, Tap & Pay, using which a bank account holder can initiate money transfers and consumers can complete merchant transactions and pay bills using their mobile phones. With this app, which leverages NFC technology, merchants can receive payments from customers with just a tap of a phone at the checkout terminal.

On the one hand, customers can transform their mobile phones into a mobile wallet using a smart iKaaz NFC tag and complete payments faster at merchant locations. On the other hand, merchants can benefit by significantly by reducing the transaction processing fees. Developed by domain experts with many years of experience in the mobile payments space, iKaaz is head quartered in Bangalore and caters to customers across the globe. It has offices in Washington the US and Nairobi in Kenya.

Last year, iKaaz has expanded into Kenya. For the same, the company had collaborated with Family Bank, one of the leading banks in the country. As the part of partnership, iKaaz will provide the customers of Family bank with its Near Field Communication (NFC) and Bluetooth powered contactless payments through Tap and Pay method. The software provider was also in talks to raise $10 M from Brand capital, which will be used for expansion in India for a new product.