Economy

Swipely has secured a $12 million Series B round of financing, which will fund its nationwide expansion, the payments and marketing company announced today.

Following the devastating tornado that struck Moore, Okla., organizations involved in the rescue and recovery efforts are relying on mobile payments technology to accept text message-based donations from the public.

Surround 360, a package of services for iPads from ShopKeep POS, protects ISOs from competitors out to “steal” merchants.

Many merchants are still wary about accepting bitcoins, but new vendor partnerships and a maturation of the companies that handle bitcoin exchanges address some of the virtual currency's riskier aspects.

A person-to-person payment method called Square Cash has surfaced on Square's website, less than a week after Google announced similar capabilities through Gmail and Google Wallet accounts.

NCR Corp. is integrating SCVNGR's LevelUp mobile payment system with its Aloha POS system for restaurants.

While many still see Bitcoin as an unrealistic payment method, venture capitalists say there are clear use cases for the decentralized cryptocurrency in micropayments, international remittance and charity.

Harbortouch is offering a $10,000 prize this summer to the retailer who submits the best video on how the winnings would advance his or her business.

MasterCard is part of a joint venture that will launch the Zuum mobile payments service this month. The venture is touting Zuum as the first service of its kind in Brazil.

Capital One is employing a technology called responsive design that changes the appearance of its website for desktop, smartphone and tablet devices.

Payvia, which provides direct-carrier billing technology, has acquired Mogreet, a provider of cloud-based mobile messaging.

Crypto Street, a startup that’s building a platform for trading digital currencies like Bitcoin, is making a point of forging relationships with multiple banks after similar businesses suddenly lost their bank accounts and folded or scaled back.

A growing number of payments technology providers are targeting small businesses with mobile point of sale offerings, creating a tech boom for a merchant segment that’s often been underserved.

BNP Paribas announced Hello bank! will be rolled out this summer to four European markets.

BTN reporter Sean Sposito is at the FinovateSpring startup showcase in San Francisco this week. Here are several companies that piqued his interest.

Square, PayPal, Groupon and others recently revealed a flurry of new technology at the point of sale, demonstrating just how capable tablets and smartphones are at handling payments and other needs for small merchants.

BitPay, which processes payments for merchants in the virtual currency Bitcoin, has attracted some investors with a pedigree in pioneering alternative ways to send and receive money.

At least two startups who demoed at Finovate this week are trying to step in between banks and commercial borrowers in the same way peer to peer lenders already have — with crowdfunding.

US Merchant Systems, an ISO serving more than 100,000 businesses, is providing data analytics to customers through Womply Insights.