Online payment firm PayPal has acquired San Francisco-based company Card.io that specializes in apps, which enable mobile phone cameras to capture credit card information rather than reading and inserting them manually. PayPal’s vice president of Global Product at PayPal Hill Ferguson confirmed in a blog post.
Card.io, is used by developers to build their own software applications and is currently available in Android and iOS. According to the firm, developers will not be restricted from using the service to develop their own applications.
The two firms’ partnership began in March when PayPal began using card.io technology in its smartphone service PayPal Here.
Ferguson states PayPal first took interest in the startups technology when they began working together on PayPal Here.
This is the reason the firm is keeping all the startup’s employees, he says.
“We first met with the team at card.io when we were working on integrating their technology into the PayPal Here mobile app. We liked their creativity and passionate drive and independence,” Ferguson said.
Just like the Zong team did, the card.io team wants to join PayPal as it is expected to work with the global product team.
Ferguson hopes the acquisition would help PayPal increase its product innovation on a larger scale as well as firm up its grip on money transfer, shopping and payment services.
PayPal was founded in 1998 and was acquired by eBay in 2002. The online payment service now has more than 153 million accounts worldwide and can be found in 190 markets. PayPal supports payments using some 24 currencies from across the world.
