Jun 8, 2015

PayPal Acquires Fig Card to Challenge Mobile Payments PayPal is eBay's shining star, but, even as it posts record revenue , the payments company is facing tough competition, especially on the mobile front. It's own efforts in the emerging market haven't been spectacular so far, but PayPal is looking to change that, partially through its latest acquisition FigCard, a startup building a mobile payments platform for merchants. "Fig Card developed an extremely easy way for merchants to accept mobile payments in stores by using a simple and very low cost USB device that plugs into the cash register or point-of-sale terminal," Peter Chu, senior director of PayPal Mobile, explained part of the reason behind the acquisition . PayPal is looking to solve the very same problem, how to make mobile payments - aka paying with your phone rather than credit card or cash - a reality for small stores and merchants. It's hardly the only one, there are plenty of companies looking at the same market, from Startups like Square to incumbents like Visa. PayPal is in a good position since it has great experience working with small companies and online systems, but it doesn't have a great advantage. And with no one cracking this particular nut just yet and no common view on how mobile payments should work, PayPal is betting on Fig Card's solution. "All the consumer needs is the Fig app on his or her smart phone. We loved their approach to point-of-sale, particularly because it was driven by the same vision that we have at PayPal – in the future, transactions can be as smart as a computer and not as dumb as paper," he wrote. PayPal didn't say what it plans to do with Fig Card and its technology. It did say that the startup's two founders will be working with the PayPal team on mobile solutions.