iZettle Buys U.K. Tech Firm, Expands Services

Sweden’s iZettle is following a now-familiar playbook to fuel its expansion in Europe with its acquisition of intelligentpos, a company specializing in business-management tools popular with restaurants and other small to midsize businesses.

It’s a strategy many other providers of mobile card readers, including the niche’s pioneer, Square, say helps to deepen relationships with customers by adding a raft of services to drive additional revenue. Square simultaneously is laying groundwork to invade iZettle’s home market via a new European base.

Stockholm-based iZettle is buying London-based intelligentpos so it can deliver a variety of services directly to its clients, including tools to manage turnover of restaurant tables, stock and inventory and back-office business planning, according to a Sept. 7 press release.

For iZettle, which has been on a rapid expansion path in Europe over the last five years and now reaches 11 countries, the move should help small-business customers increase their own revenue by gaining access to tools that were typically available only to larger companies, said Jacob de Geer, iZettle’s CEO, in the release.

“As businesses increasingly are looking for a unified point of sale and payments experience, this is a natural next step for us and for the market,” added Robin Knox, CEO of intelligentpos, in the release.