European mobile payments enabler SumUp today expanded to France, Belgium and Portugal, taking its total number of active markets to 10.
Like iZettle and Payleven, two of its main rivals in Europe, SumUp provides a card reader for merchants to plug into smartphones or tablets. The reader, plus the SumUp iOS or Android app, allows merchants to take credit or debit card payments on-the-go.
SumUp’s solution works with both Mastercard and VISA. It’s a chip-and-sign solution, not chip-and-PIN (which VISA Europe requires – and Adyen offers with its new standalone POS device Shuttle), but has negotiated a workaround to make sure VISA payments will still be accepted.
“If a merchant would like to take VISA card payments, they simply select ‘VISA’ from the choice of payment methods, and they then enter the customer’s phone number,” SumUp spokesman Daniel Klein clarified recently. ”The customer then immediately receives a text message with a secure link which they open in the browser on their own smartphone. In this browser window, they enter their VISA card details and the payment is confirmed for both them and for the merchant.”
Even without a streamlined chip-and-PIN solution for VISA, SumUp is making good progress in its push to provide a pan-European solution. The young company, founded in 2011, launched in the UK, Ireland, Germany and Austria last August and expanded to Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands last November. It now employs about 130 people across offices in Berlin, London, Dublin, Madrid, Milan and Amsterdam.
SumUp received $20 million in Series A funding from b-to-v Partners, Shortcut Ventures, Tengelmann Ventures and early Facebook and Skype investor Klaus Hommels in August this year.
FOR RELATED POSTS, CHECK OUT:
Investor spotlight: Klaus Hommels on success, failure and what makes him nervous
Exclusive: myTaxi to launch smartphone “dongle” to rival SumUp, Payleven, Square
Adyen launches mobile payment solution Shuttle across Europe
