Ingenico Ventures covers the mobile payment spectrum

Founded and headed by Will Graylin, a serial entrepreneur in the mobile computing, security and payments environment, Roam Data provides the convenience of merchant transactions on mobile devices via its PCI DSS payment gateway, operated 24X7. Roam’s initial solutions target the large untapped market of mobile professionals and micro-merchants, from outdoor vendors, plumbers and electricians to larger businesses with fleets of delivery drivers, installers or direct sellers (such as Avon, Mary Kay, Herbalife and Tupperware). Roam’s patented technology enables it to dynamically deliver business and payment applications to service end-users on their own mobile phones - from smartphones like iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Android, to feature phones from Nokia, Samsung, LG, Motorola and others running J2ME and Brew.

This is the second investment in mobile payment made by Ingenico Ventures this year, after the 35% stake it took in Transfer To, a Singapore-based Payment Service Provider (PSP) (cf. Smart Insights Weekly #09-37).  Transfer To operates a global airtime remittance network interconnecting the mobile operators prepaid users. Transfer To has set up more than 30 carrier agreements, primarily in Asia and the Middle East. Foreign workers can recharge the prepaid mobile phones of their relatives back at home just by sending a text message. Airtime remittance also enables migrants to send small value amounts: 200 million migrants remit US$ 300 billion (EUR 200 billion) every year. Out of the 3.1 billion mobile subscribers worldwide, 2 billion are prepaid. They perform 49 billion top-up a year.

Globally Ingenico Ventures, the investment arm of the Ingenico group, has set up an investment strategy centered around selective investments in smaller businesses. Ingenico Ventures investment strategy includes the mobile payments area, especially the prepaid segment (with Transfer To), the card-not-present segment (with Roam Data) and the direct debit segment (with EasyCash, cf. SIW #09-40).