Curve, a London-based startup founded by Israeli entrepreneur Shachar Bialick in 2015, has commenced operations with launch of a physical payment card that allows people to combine an unlimited number of bank cards into a single entity.
Curve said it is soft-launching in the UK only for now, for a limited number of users in the business and freelancer realm, before it opens up more widely to consumers in the coming months.
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Built on the MasterCard network, the Curve prepaid card can be used in various payment terminals where Mastercard is accepted such as magnetic strip, chip and pin and contactless.
It is not distributed by a bank or credit card provider, hence enabling users to pay with American Express in places even where it is not accepted.
In order to mitigate risk of fraud, the card uses tokenisation to process transactions, without revealing original card details and data to the merchant.
The Curve card does not have any maximum limit on transaction value. It is free to use, with an initial one off cost of £35, and is initially compatible on iOS.
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By GlobalDataCurve CEO and co-founder Shachar Bialick said: "With Curve you have one card and see every single transaction in one screen. We’re not another new bank or extra service to deal with, we transform your existing fragmented financial world into somewhere crystal clear, designed for the user.
"Mobile payments have the potential to bring similar benefits, but cards work everywhere and people are used to them. So we’ve created the best of both worlds – all the benefits of mobile payments via a ground-breaking card."
