M-Payments Startup ShopKeep Grows POS Platform

Mobile point-of-sale startup ShopKeep has acquired its payment processing partner Payment Revolution, and will integrate both the technology and the people into its own operation, TechCrunch reported on Wednesday (March 25).

Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but Payment Revolution CEO Etie Hertz will become senior VP of payments at ShopKeep, TechCrunch reported. According to a post on ShopKeep’s company blog, Payment Revolution will be rolled into a new ShopKeep division called ShopKeep Payments.

Until now, Payment Revolution has been an independent sales organization and a full-service payment card processor. But the two companies have regularly partnered to serve merchants who needed both a point-of-sale (POS) system and a processor. “We speak to a lot of merchants every month and a lot of them are looking for partners for payments processing, so we would pass them off to Payment Revolution,” ShopKeep CEO Norm Merritt told TechCrunch.

ShopKeep competes with Square and other iPad-based POS systems and currently has some 16,000 POS installations with just under 15,000 merchants — none of whom would rather become POS or payments experts than merchants, Merritt said.

“Most merchants do not have the time to research the intricacies of payment processing, and because ShopKeep has such transparent pricing options, many of them have requested a simpler payments solution from us,” he added. Integrating the Payment Revolution technology into the POS will simplify things for the merchants and keep the tech under the covers. However, ShopKeep will still let merchants use its POS with any card processor they choose.

“One thing that sets ShopKeep apart is that we were started by a merchant,” Merritt said. “That DNA means we have a good reputation. We are on their side.”

Along with transparent pricing plans and marketing software integrations, ShopKeep’s POS already supports gift cards and can add any other payment approaches. In December, ShopKeep rolled out support for Apple Pay and offered new customers a free handheld reader to get up to speed with Apple’s payment service.

ShopKeep has raised about $37 million, including $25 million from a Series C funding round last April. Right now it’s working on a Series D round to continue its expansion, Merritt said.