Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Point-of-sale terminal and payment software provider Ingenico on Tuesday announced it has acquired Phos, a developer of specialty software that enables smart phones and tablets to function as payment terminals.
Ingenico said in a statement that Phos is a “premier player” in the fast-evolving software for the POS (softPOS) market and counts a large number of merchant acquirers and payment service providers as customers. Ultimate users include small businesses, including single-person businesses, as well as large companies. Phos’s app supports multiple user interfaces, has application programming interface integrations, and provides various connectivity options.
“The solution enables any contactless form of card payment from the main international payment schemes as well as digital wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay and QR-code-based payments,” Ingenico said in a statement.
Ingenico said the installed base of SoftPOS terminals is expected to grow from 3.1 million in 2022 to nearly 12 million in 2027. The company didn’t source those numbers, however, and a spokesperson could not be reached for comment.
Chief executive Brad Hyett of Sofia, Bulgaria-based Phos said in a statement that “we see strong customer demand and significant double-digit growth in the SoftPOS addressable market worldwide and are convinced that Ingenico will help us capture more of that market and explore new use cases with clients globally. We look forward to accelerating the business together with the Ingenico teams over the coming months.”
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The deal comes six months after affiliates of the private-equity firm Apollo Global Management acquired France-based Ingenico from Worldline S.A.
Meanwhile, Ingenico rival Verifone Inc. on Tuesday launched its Horizon Partner Program. The program is aimed at enabling data feeds and application programming interfaces for Verifone’s Commander Site Controller technology, used by gas stations and convenience stores.
Coral Springs, Fla.-based Verifone said hundreds of companies use the APIs on the Verifone Commander Site Controller to provide loyalty programs, back-office management applications, mobile-payment services, and other offerings. Verifone develops, documents, maintains, and supports those APIs on behalf of its merchant base and the partners connected to them.
With the new partner program, “we’re improving our already secure and managed petroleum and c-store ecosystem to further allow new and current partners to leverage many of the features we’ve built over the last 25-plus years,” Tim O’Loughlin, president of Verifone Americas, said in a statement.
“We continue to make investments and updates so that merchants can connect with services to run their businesses successfully now and long into the future.”
