Update: we have received an update about this article from Payleven, stating that, despite announcing in their press release that Payleven is launching in France, the product in fact will not be available in the Apple Store until at least next April. In addition, the product will not be sold on the Apple store for 49€, a message unclear in their original announcement.
German payments startup Payleven announced today that their mobile payments terminal, which is compatible with France’s pin & chip carte bleue debit cards, is launching in France. The product, which sells for 49€ and connects wirelessly to tablets and smartphones, comes without any monthly engagement and lines up pricing-wise with the American Square, which has yet to launch in Europe due to financial regulation.
Payleven is already available in nine markets – Germany, the UK, Spain, Italy, Poland, Brasil and Benelux – and the team is currently 90-strong, having raised more than €10 Million in 2012 from un-named investors. The product can be bought today online on the Apple Store (in France and other markets), as well as on Payleven’s web site, and will be coming to Apple stores in France soon.
Payleven has been going head-to-head with payments provider Adyen, who after building a healthy online business enabling websites to accept virtually all forms of payment online, launches a PoS terminal for SMBs & individuals earlier this year.
Payleven, meanwhile, a pure-player in the Mobile PoS space, has been taking Europe by storm, announcing a partnership with a Berlin taxi company earlier this year in an effort to throw their hat into the turbulent taxi-market.
While the online payments space have become quite full in the past 18 months, the smartphone-enabled PoS space is still quite empty, namely because of the aforementioned financial regulations. Payleven’s adaptation of the Square-model has been wildly successful; time will only tell how French independent business owners take to this new model of payments in-store/in-tax/in-person.