Mastercard and KaiOS Partner on Payment Acceptance in Emerging Markets

Mastercard and KaiOS have partnered to offer affordable payment acceptance devices to small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in emerging markets.

The companies will begin offering the devices to SMBs in Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria and then expand across Africa and beyond, they said in a Wednesday (Sept. 25) press release.

“Acceptance fuels a successful digital economy, so it’s critical that we meet people where they are today and move them forward together,” Jorn Lambert, chief product officer at Mastercard, said in the release. “Whether it’s a micro-merchant in Cote d’Ivoire to an enterprise in Indonesia, our goal is to make it as easy for merchants to accept digital payments as it is for consumers to make them.”

The partnership will deliver these capabilities by bringing together Mastercard’s payment technology and global network and KaiOS’s affordable smart feature phones, according to the release.

With this combination, even the smallest businesses will be able to accept digital payments via Mastercard QR Pay by Link, the release said. Tap & Go contactless payments technology will be added in the near future.

The collaboration aims to solve the challenges SMBs face in adopting digital payments, such as the cost of traditional payment acceptance terminals and the challenge of technical implementation, per the release.

“By bringing Mastercard’s secure payment technology to affordable internet phones running KaiOS, we’re unlocking new opportunities for small businesses and entrepreneurs, allowing them to participate in modern commerce more fully,” Sebastien Codeville, CEO of KaiOS Technologies, said in the release. “This innovation brings down the barriers and enables an affordable consumer device to become a powerful business tool.”

Mastercard has been working to improve payment acceptance by collaborating with late-stage startups that are focused on initiatives like creating low-cost solutions for small businesses and allowing for non-traditional channel acceptance.

With its Start Path program, for example, Mastercard offers these startups mentoring, chances to collaborate and access to its network of banks, merchants and digital players.

“The ability to accept electronic payments has been critical to shaping the future of commerce and spurring the secular shift to digital — unlocking new use cases and enhancing expectations for speed, simplicity and safety,” Mastercard said in a May 2 press release.

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