mPowa, a mobile payment service launched by British e-commerce entrepreneur Dan Wagner, will be available in the U.S.
The company, which is a unit of Powa Technologies, provides a mobile phone app and a reader. The reader connects to a smartphone or mobile device either by plugging into its headphone socket or via Bluetooth and is used to swipe the magnetic strip of the card.
The app is free to download on iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows and BlackBerry devices and functions as the control center that accepts payment in multiple currencies, mPowa said Thursday. mPowa charges a .25% fee for each credit or debit card payment processed.
The company said it is different than U.S. competitor Square by catering to chip and PIN cards.
Wagner, chairman and chief executive of Powa Technologies, launched Marketing Analysis & Information Database in the 1980s and eventually sold the business to Thomson Reuters for roughly half a billion dollars.
