Continuing its rapid growth aspirations, mobile point of service (mPOS) provider, SumUp, is entering the US market today with the launch of its payment platform in the country. Its entrance in the US occurs as the firm has had an active year, including the expansion of its services into numerous markets as well the forging of strategic partners as part of a large fundraising round.
A leader of mPOS technology in Europe, SumUp faces tough competition in the US from incumbent Square, which popularized the dongle and mobile Payments in the country. Both firms have garnered interest from small and medium businesses, which are able to use the mPOS devices to easily accept card-based payments from mobile devices.
SumUp’s arrival in the US occurs as credit card networks have recently put into effect measures to increase the uptake of EMV compliant card readers. Providing more security, EMV readers require users to dip their cards and enter a PIN number instead of simply swiping the magnetic strip. Already fully established in Europe as the prevalent technology, SumUp enters the US with EMV compliant mPOS terminals and technology that it has built for prior markets. As a result, the firm is introducing a low-cost mobile-based payment system to try and quickly grab market share as merchants upgrade to EMV and contactless technology.
With the US becoming the 15th country SumUp supports, CEO Daniel Klein, stated: “It’s a perfect time to bring SumUp to the U.S. The shift to EMV chip cards puts more costly fraud liability on stores without chip terminals - - but only half of small businesses are even aware of EMV liability.”
