PayPal on Tuesday announced that it has bought San Francisco-based technology company Card.io, that provides technology for developers to capture credit card information using the camera on a smartphone.
Talking about the new move, PayPal vice president of global product Hill Ferguson said , “We first met with the team at card.io when we were working on integrating their technology into the PayPal Here mobile app. While working with them, we were simply blown away by the creativity and drive of their employees. They are a passionate and independent team that likes solving large, complex problems and we wanted them to join our team.”
Following this acquisition, the Card.io team will be joining the PayPal global product team in San Jose and make it even easier for consumers and merchants to use the PayPal digital wallet. The present card.io technology will still remain available to developers for use in their own apps.
“We can’t wait to get them involved in helping us change the future of shopping and payments,” Ferguson stated in the PayPal official blog.
Over the past few months, PayPal has been offering services tailored for mobile and smartphone users. The company started allowing merchants across the world to take payments using smartphones, and launched the PayPal Here software that lets shopkeepers take payments by snapping a picture of a card with a smartphone instead of having to swipe it in the dongle.