mPOS At 37,000 Feet

With the global mobile point of sale (mPOS) market projected to experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.8% from 2017 to 2026, many solution providers are looking to use partnerships as a boost to snag a bigger share of the growing market.

Around the mPOS space, providers are teaming up, merging or making acquisitions. In the January “mPOS Tracker,” PYMNTS charts the latest developments.

Around The mPOS World

Among the latest players to make an acquisition is DIVA, a digital business accelerator and POS device provider. The company recently acquired a 30% stake in small and medium-sized business (SMB) payments hardware and software provider Pawoon. DIVA’s investment will help Pawoon fuel product development and merchant acquisition, while DIVA hopes to get easier expansion in the food and beverages sector.

Two FinTech firms in Poland are also forging closer ties. iCompass, a software provider that supplied technology for the first Polish mPOS platform, initiated a merger with Braintri, a company that develops mobile apps for major Polish banks. The merger is intended to help the companies bring their products and operations to foreign markets. Once the merger is complete, the FinTech firms will rebrand.

However, not all mergers and acquisitions are going accordingly. The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating PayPal’s September acquisition of iZettle. After completing phase one of its investigation, the CMA announced in November that it’s concerned the iZettle acquisition could damage competition in the U.K.’s mPOS device market, as well as eventually cause less competition in its emerging omnichannel payments market, too. The CMA is now moving into phase two of the investigation.

For all the latest headlines, download the Tracker.

mPOS Helps In-Flight Payments Take Off

Meanwhile, in South Africa, mPOS has been flying high. South African airline FlySafair deployed mPOS solutions for in-flight purchases on its airplanes this year, where the devices can facilitate in-flight meal payments, gather helpful sales data and speed the reconciliation process for flight attendants.

However, not just any mPOS solution would do the trick. In a recent interview with PYMNTS, FlySafair Head of IT and Innovation Eswee Vorster explained how the airline helped design its mPOS solution’s software to function both during flights and for check-ins in the airport, and how FlySafair plans to develop new features to personalize the payment experience.

To read the feature story, download the Tracker.

About The Tracker

The “mPOS Tracker” is the go-to resource for staying up to date on a month-by-month basis. The Tracker highlights the contributions of different stakeholders, including institutions and technology coming together to make this happen.