PayPal is all set to buy the San Francisco startup Card.io which will become a part of PayPal’s global product team in San Jose, and will assist PayPal lay out its digital wallet.
Card.io’s technology allows developers to capture credit card data by having users scan their cards with a smartphone camera. PayPal Here, PayPal’s small business product and Square rival, offered the scanning service to merchants, giving them another way to take credit card payments without the use of a card-reading dongle.
“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,” said Hill Ferguson, PayPal’s Vice President of Global Product.
Card.io has released its own payment app which will let consumers receive payments. The purchase price wasn’t announced but this makes a lot of sense for PayPal. The company is putting more emphasis on its digital wallet as it ramps up its efforts in-store and on mobile. Having a technology like Card.io allows PayPal to not only facilitate more payments but also potentially help with other visual scanning uses such verifying identification cards.
