HEADLINE NEWS

OTI to Supply Contactless and NFC Readers for Gasoline Stations in North America

Israel-based contactless and NFC vendor On Track Innovations announced Monday it had received an order for 30,000 readers for point-of-sale terminals at retail gasoline stations in North America.

Taxis in Major U.S. Cities to Get NFC-Enabled Video Ads

Riders in 5,000 taxicabs in the U.S. would be able to tap on NFC tags on video advertising screens to download apps, brand information, coupons, maps, music and videos, according to technology suppliers that have equipped the taxis for potential advertising campaigns.

Analyst: Banks Have More to Fear from Cloud-Based Technologies Than NFC

Banks have much more to fear from cloud-based mobile payment than from NFC, even if mobile operators control the secure elements that hold the banks’ payment applications.

GSMA Proposes Global Standard for NFC-Enabled Loyalty and Couponing–Using SIM Cards

May 10 2013 (All day)

The GSMA mobile operator trade group is proposing a global standard for how point-of-sale terminals talk to NFC-enabled mobile wallets to enable consumers to redeem coupons and rewards.

Taiwanese Bank Gets Approval for NFC-Enabled Credit Cards; Okay for Other Banks Expected

Taiwanese banking regulators, as expected, have approved the first bank to issue mobile credit cards that could be downloaded over the air to SIM cards.

UK Retailer Marks & Spencer Sees Growing Use of Contactless

Marks & Spencer, one of the UK’s largest retailers, announced today it had rolled out contactless payment to 644 of its UK stores and said 14% of its card transactions under £20 (US$30.97) are contactless.

Identive Reports Growing NFC Business; Blames Flat Sales, Losses, on U.S. Budget Cuts

U.S.-based Identive Group reported growing NFC and smart card reader business, but fell back into the red during for the first quarter, a loss it largely blamed on U.S. federal government budget cuts.

German Bank and Telco Hold Small NFC Trial; Larger Launches Planned in Country This Year

As Germany gears up for NFC, German bank Dortmunder Volksbank along with Telefónica (O2) Germany have launched a small pilot putting a credit application onto SIM cards in Western Germany.

Cashless Technology Company Announces Rollout of Isis SmartTap on Vending Machines

Vending technology company USA Technologies plans to integrate the SmartTap mobile-commerce software into all of the company’s nearly 100,000 NFC-enabled terminals on vending machines nationwide.

Vendor Group: NFC Secure Element Market to Grow by Two-Thirds This Year

Smart card vendor association Eurosmart has substantially increased its estimate for NFC secure element shipments for 2012–by 50% to 150 million units–and forecasts that secure element shipments will grow by another 67% in 2013 to 250 million units.

Gemalto Reveals Some Details of MCX Deal; Vendor Will Earn Fees for Transactions

France-based smart card and security vendor Gemalto will operate the mobile-payment platform for U.S. merchant group MCX, earning a fee for every transaction, in addition to what appears to be a hosting fee it says is worth tens of millions.

Inside Reports NFC Revenue Down Sharply in First Quarter; Some Recovery Expected in Q2

France-based chip supplier Inside Secure today reported a sharp decline in its revenue in the first quarter from its NFC chips, blaming the situation on excess inventories of NFC chips on hand by its main customer BlackBerry.

Vivotech Announces New Funding Round as it Seeks to Capitalize on M-Commerce Buzz

Contactless reader and NFC software vendor Vivotech announced today a new funding round, which it said brings the amount of its total venture capital financing to nearly $100 million over more than 10 years.

The Silicon Valley-based vendor, however, declined to reveal the amount or name the contributors of its latest funding round, series D.

But the latest round likely amounts to around $6 million since the vendor last June confirmed that it had raised a total $90 million after announcing its series C funding round of $24 million.

For that round, Vivotech announced the contributors, including new investors EDBI and SingTel Innov8, both of Singapore, along with Motorola Solutions Venture Capital. They joined existing investors, which put up more money as part of the $24 million round, including Alloy Ventures, Citi Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurveston, First Data Corp., Motorola Mobility, Nokia Growth Partners and NCR.

Since its founding in 2001, Vivotech said it has raised a total $96 million.

As NFC Times reported last June, its venture capital funding will help as Vivotech continues to try to move its business away from its dependence on unprofitable and commoditizing contactless point-of-sale payment readers to software and services used for payment and to deliver, track and redeem mobile offers, such as coupons and loyalty, for consumers on their smartphones. Web companies, among other new market entrants, see NFC technology as a way to connect the online and offline worlds.

Besides having shipped nearly 1 million terminals globally over the past several years, Vivotech in today’s announcement noted that its software and POS terminal technologies are being used by Google for its Google Wallet and is also being integrated with the Isis mobile-commerce platform. That’s in addition to banks and merchants that use the company’s products.

Vivotech is not the only point-of-sale technology vendor that Google and Isis are working with, and Vivotech is facing stiff competition on both the hardware and software side from such vendors as VeriFone, the largest POS terminals supplier in the United States.

Vivotech also offers trusted service manager software, in addition to the payment, loyalty and couponing platforms. It has also promoted a mobile wallet in the past, but competing mobile wallet supplier C-Sam filed a patent infringement suit against it last September.

Michael “Mick” Mullagh, who has served as CEO but was listed as Vivotech’s executive chairman in today’s announcement, said in the announcement that a slew of new NFC devices are expected to hit the market over the next two years and mandates from payment networks will prompt merchants to upgrade their POS terminal systems by 2015 to EMV and contactless.

This would create more demand for Vivotech’s software and systems, Mullagh said in a statement, adding that the latest financing would help Vivotech in providing the infrastructure needed to “deliver on the promise of m-commerce.”

Vivotech last year was rumored to be planning an initial public offering for as early as 2012. Mullagh told NFC Times last June that he projected the company would turn a profit sometime in 2012 and then would consider an IPO. Vivotech would have the “profile” of an IPO-ready company in 12 to 18 months, though he added that an IPO is not necessarily in the cards, Mullagh said at the time.

Mullagh also said at the time that Vivotech needs a more balanced mix of software and hardware sales as it moves forward.

He declined to release Vivotech’s revenue figures, but has said they are in the double-digit millions.