PayPal may not be banging the drum for NFC, but it still aims to define the digital wallet for the whole industry. It is steadily buying up start-ups whose technologies will enhance its payments platform to span online, mobile and terrestrial transactions. The latest is Card.io, whose system allows the cameraphone to capture credit card data.
The eBay unit has already used Card.io technology to capture card images for the PayPal Here product, enabling merchants to use their handsets’ cameras to scan the information rather than needing the special Here payments dongle. Now PayPal will own the Card.io video swipe technology. It is not clear whether it will continue to offer it to external developers, though the firm did say current SDKs for iOS and Android would remain available.
It also gets Card.io’s new payment application, which allows consumers to receive sums of money and will boost the digital wallet. The system could also be extended to verifying other cards, such as ID tags or transport passes, which might also be included in an e-wallet. This would fit with the new wallet which PayPal unveiled in March, which was designed to be a single app for many aspects of mobile commerce ‘ it includes tools for managing loyalty programs and monitoring budgets.
‘They are a passionate and independent team that likes solving large, complex problems and we wanted them to join our team,’ said Hill Ferguson, PayPal’s VP of global product, on a company blog post.
Card.io has raised $1m from Harrison Metal, SoftTech VC, K9 Ventures and from Alok Bhanot, the former VP of Risk Technology at PayPal, and Omar Hamoui, founder of AdMob.