Friday , March 29, 2024

Mastercard’s Contactless Transit Announcement and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 3/22/19

  • Mastercard Inc. announced contactless-payment capability will go live in 20 U.S. cities “within the next few years,” starting with subway and bus systems later this year in New York City, where the company is working with transit-technology firm Cubic Transportation Systems.
  • Bitmo, a startup that offers mobile gift cards that allow users to split and exchange value among merchants, announced a $3 million funding round. The company also announced it is “on track” to sign up more than 1 million users by the end of the year, with its user count growing 28% month-over-month.
  • China’s WeChat Pay mobile-payment service, which has increasingly expanded into foreign markets including the United States in recent years, said the service is now available in 49 markets outside the Chinese mainland and supports cross-border payments in 16 currencies. It also cited statistics showing that 149 million Chinese tourists traveled abroad last year, up 14.7% over 2017, and spent some $120 billion.
  • Hospitality point-of-sale provider b4checkin announced a partnership with SignNow to enable electronic signatures for documents like contracts and reservation and cancellation forms.
  • First Data Corp. acquired ayCash, a German provider of payment terminals and digital merchant services. Terms were not disclosed.
  • Gilbarco Veeder-Root said Phillips 66 released software to enable EMV card acceptance in the forecourts of its fuel stations. The technology uses the Gilbarco Passport point-of-sale system.
  • Facebook Inc. posted a job notice seeking an attorney to support the social network’s “new initiative in the development of blockchain applications.” Last month, The New York Times reported that Facebook is working on a digital currency for users of its WhatsApp messaging application.
  • Marqeta, which issues special-purpose payment cards for companies like Square Inc. and Affirm Inc., is reportedly raising $250 million in venture capital, a deal that would value the company at $1.875 billion and catapult it into the ranks of the unicorns—privately held firms worth more than $1 billion. The firm started out in 2010 issuing promotional prepaid cards partially funded by merchants.

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