PayPal, which made some aggressive moves into mobile payments by way of its Here dongle, is now separating from eBay.
Affiliates typically receive their payments by way of wire transfer or check, directly into their local bank accounts, in their own countries.
EMarketer projects that by the end of this year, 19% of smartphone owners in the U.S. will be using proximity-based payments by way of mobile wallets, with total transactions of $27.05 billion.
And the longer-term plan will also be to offer other services to the restaurants as well, specifically in the area of loyalty services and payments by way of the MaplePOS acquisition announced last week; and also in online ordering.
The company, which has received $46.7 million in backing from companies and VCs that include MasterCard and American Express, is now able to take mobile payments by way of a dongle attached to an iOS or Android device in Spain, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, the United Kingdom and Germany.
Add one more to the list of companies going head-to-head in the area of card payments by way of smartphone attachments: today, Berlin-based SumUp is opening up for business in the UK, Germany, Ireland and Austria, backed by an eight-figure Series A round, understood by TechCrunch to be over $20 million.
Barclays was reportedly staying away from Apple Pay negotiations in part because it has been building out its own contactless payment technology by way of a partnership with VocaLink's Zapp.
Spain has experienced an unprecedented increase in private medical plans, financed by agreements with the state health system, private insurance policies, direct payments or by way of insurance of foreign patients, and direct out-of-pocket payments by patients who are Spanish residents.
In terms of acquisitions, the idea will be not to move into new product categories like e-commerce but to add value to the basic, low-margin payments service by way of more services that enhance the experience.
Stripe — the company that lets websites and apps incorporate payments services by way of an API and a few lines of code — has raised another round of funding, a Series D of $150 million at a $9 billion valuation pre-money; $9.2 billion post-money.
The company's main technology and product is called Payment Engine, and by way of an API, this sits as the essential engine behind a number of other services such as Azimo, TransferWise and xe.com and many others, over 125 in total, who have built businesses around the idea of moving money internationally.
