American Express has bought an undisclosed minority stake in Bangalore-based mobile start-up, Ezetap Mobile Solutions.

The announcement follows the venture funding of INR 498m ($8.13m) Ezetap received from a consortium of investors in February 2014, led by venture fund Helion Venture Partners.

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Abhijit Bose, who co-founded Ezetap in 2011, said "This investment is a validation about what we are doing and the potential of the market.

"The investment will allow us to turn on additional value added services such as loyalty and rewards that will delight users and change the entire payment experience for end consumers," he added.

Ezetap is a payment device which converts mobile devices into a point of sale terminal through its software and hardware.

The device includes a card reader and chip, costing around $50.

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Ezetap has deployed 12,000 devices across South East Asia and Africa, aiming to take the total number of devices to over 100,000 by 2015.

American Express believes mobile point of sales solutions will play an important role in helping to further enable commerce.
"Especially in small merchant segments that have historically relied on cash," Sanjay Rishi, president of American Express in South Asia, commented.

"Ezetap is one of the few mobile point of sale companies in the world that owns the entire technology stack from its hardware application to its open platform, integration framework, and processing," he added.

 

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