Square Gearing Up To Expand Into Europe

Square, the payments company run by Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s CEO, could be gearing up to expand into Europe.

Earlier on Monday (July 19), registration documents filed in Britain showed Square is incorporating a business named Squareup Europe Ltd. Those documents imply the company could be getting ready to enter Europe for the first time ever. Square is already in the U.S., Canada, Japan and Australia, but it has yet to expand beyond that. At a time when Square has been focused on the U.S. and non-European markets, rivals having been entering that space, creating competition for Square. For instance, iZettle of Sweden and London’s SumUp, which is backed by Groupon, already have established brands in Europe.

The online documents on Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority’s website show Squareup Europe can provide payment services in Britain with or without credit lines. What’s more, the company was granted permission to provide similar services like transactions in the European Economic Area, which includes European Union member states, Norway and two other countries. The impact that Brexit will have on this is unclear since Squareup Europe is based in the U.K.

An expansion into Europe on the part of Square may not come as a surprise to people paying attention to the company’s moves. In May, it named Paul Deighton, a member of the upper House of Lords and a former commercial secretary to the treasury in Britain, as a board member. That was seen as an early indication that Square had Europe in its sights. According to a report by Reuters, Square started beta testing in London in June to gear up for an impending launch.

For its second quarter, the payment processing company reported a loss of $0.14 per share on $379 million in revenues, up 51 percent, compared to the $0.09 per share loss on $344 million in sales The Street expected for the March period.