Gift and loyalty services company SparkBase says its deal announced this week with Apriva will expand the potential number of merchants that can accept SparkBase products.
Merchants using Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Apriva's wireless network will be able to accept prepaid gift and loyalty cards issued by SparkBase, Douglas Hardman, SparkBase CEO, tells PaymentsSource, noting more merchants are asking about mobile acceptance of gift and loyalty cards.
The Apriva deal also means SparkBase acceptance expands to all of the mobile-payment devices Apriva certifies, and not just the devices SparkBase itself has certified, Hardman says.
"This opens up a lot of devices," he says. "They have mobile phones they support and we don't."
Cleveland-based SparkBase sells only through independent sales organizations. The gift and loyalty programs are "white label," meaning the ISO can put its brand on the prepaid products.
Apriva also could benefit because SparkBase's ISOs more easily could sell prepaid gift and loyalty card programs to mobile merchants, Hardman says.
