Disruptors

San Francisco, Calif.-based startup Balanced says it is gaining traction with online marketplaces, the eBay-like venues where small merchants gather to sell products and services online.

The United States has long resisted adopting the EMV smart-card standard to replace magnetic-stripe credit and debit cards. But the card networks report success in the years-long push to modernize plastic payments.

Milan-based mobile point-of-sale startup Jusp has secured $6 million in an initial round of funding for its chip-and-PIN mobile card reader, which it plans to launch in Italy.

PXT Payments, which operates the mobile payments and rewards app "looped in," is partnering with Boston College-based startup Jebbit for a student-focused marketing program that combines mobile payments and gaming.

Seattle-based iKaaz LLC figures the best way to make contactless Near Field Communication payments truly mobile is to create a reader that turns mobile phones into point of sale terminals.

With each career move, Kevin McInturff has strayed farther from the mainstream payments business to work on products that are increasingly experimental and niche.

Walletini is one of a small but growing group of mobile-wallet apps that integrates with Apple's Passbook while also trying to upstage it with an escrow-like service for ticket sales.

When Colonel Harland Sanders created the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise in 1955, he couldn't possibly envision how customers in Europe would pay for his fried chicken in 2013. Many will soon use a KFC mobile wallet to feed their fried-chicken cravings.

Instawallet, a Bitcoin wallet service, has "suspended indefinitely" because of fraudulent access, according to a notice on the company’s website today. It is the latest in a series of attacks and glitches to afflict businesses that work with the digital currency.

OpenCoin Inc. has acquired Simple Honey Inc., an ecommerce system based on "wish list" shopping.

BitPay Inc. has more than doubled the processing volume it forecasted for March, fueled by recent business moves. It also hired a veteran of the payment processor Global Payments to handle product management.

Xoom is extending its new Pay Only When Received remittance procedure, or POWR, to Latin America and the Caribbean.

Balanced, a startup that allows developers and entrepreneurs to build payments technology, has raised an additional $3.4 million round of seed capital.

Small-business payment company WePay has named Susan Dunn as general counsel and Susan Oda as vice president of finance.

Windows Phone 8 may often get overshadowed by the iPhone and Android handsets, but developers and retailers are increasingly willing to give Microsoft's open platform a chance.

Starbucks has hit some snags in its attempt to maintain momentum for its mobile card app and its deepening partnership with Square, but for the coffee giant, such issues are an expected part of its aggressive expansion plan.

Virtual Piggy has hired former PayPal executive Iain Herd to be its new global mobile product director.

PayPal has forged numerous partnerships to get its payment system to the point of sale, and as PayPal's technology evolves, the company has to ensure its own offerings don't overlap those of its partners.

In a few short years, Starbucks became one of the most noteworthy companies in mobile payments. These 11 decisions are the key ingredients in its strategy.

Cashcloud SA, a start-up venture in Luxembourg, is testing a mobile wallet and rewards currency throughout much of Europe.