Near-Field Communication (NFC)

Fresha, a platform that enables consumers to book and pay for beauty and wellness appointments, received a $100-millon Series C investment led by General Atlantic.BitPay Inc. is processing transactions allowing users to spend cryptocurrency with Shells, a provider of cloud-based virtual desktop operating systems.The city of South Haven, Mich., has launched …

The trend toward providing merchants technology that unites their digital and physical payments acceptance and allows them to manage their operations from a single platform got another boost Tuesday with Israel-based Wix.com Inc.’s introduction of Wix POS. The solution allows merchants to accept in-store and online payments, including contactless and chip …

One way to boost mobile-wallet usage for functions like payments is to more tightly integrate the apps into users’ daily lives. Apple Inc. followed that script with its preview on Monday of an update for watchOS8, the brains behind its Apple Watch.  This fall, the refresh will allow users to …

Not quite two years old, LG Pay, the mobile payment service from LG Electronics USA, is shutting down, according to a report on Droid-Life.com. It captured a screenshot of an alert declaring the service will be phased out and discontinued “over the remainder of 2021.” In April, LG announced it was exiting …

Vendors of parking apps in North America have an even more potent new competitor with the closing on Tuesday of EasyPark Group’s acquisition of the Park Now Group, which includes Atlanta-based ParkMobile LLC. The deal, which the companies announced in March, brings a major North American stake to Stockholm-based EasyPark, …

Deluxe Corp. has closed on its $960-million cash deal for payments provider First American Payments Systems, announced in April. The acquisition doubles Deluxe’s payments revenue to $600 million annually, driving its share of the company’s overall revenue from 17% to 29%.Authentication-technology provider LoginID Inc. said it has received an undisclosed investment from Visa Inc., …

Certegy Payment Solutions LLC added a white-label version of its buy now, pay later service that enables merchants to add their own branded BNPL option.Buy now, pay later specialist Quadpay Inc. said its inaugural “Quadpay Fest” sale, which offered deals to users over a four-day period, saw 40% of purchases on average made …

Appetize Technologies Inc., a provider of point-of-sale technology for the hospitality and entertainment industries, launched Appetize Payments, which combines payment processing with the company’s cloud-based software.Ally Lending, the personal-lending unit of Ally Bank, a subsidiary of Ally Financial Inc., said buy now, pay later provider Sezzle Inc. will offer Ally’s longer-term …

MagicCube Inc. announced Monday that Dojo, a United Kingdom-based payments provider, will adopt MagicCube’s i-Accept software, which converts off-the-shelf mobile devices into point-of-sale terminals. Dojo will integrate i-Accept into its SoftPos + PIN platform in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.   The integration is expected to give Dojo …

Amid one of the greatest crises in a century, the way we execute commerce and pay for goods and services has seen an acceleration that will be with us long after we return to some semblance of normalcy. The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated by five years or more the adoption …