Four years in the making, technology entrepreneur Stafford Masie, through his company Thumbzup, has finally taken his mobile payments solution for smartphones commercial — through partner bank Absa.
The mobile point of sale system, called the Payment Pebble, allows merchants — typically small enterprises and sole proprietors, but also large enterprises — to accept card payments on the go using a phone or tablet.
The system is simple to use — users download the Absa Payment Pebble application to their device and then plug the low-cost card reader into the 3,5mm audio jack of their phone or tablet (running Android, iOS or BlackBerry 10) to swipe or “dip” cards and receive payments. It accepts Visa and MasterCard magnetic stripe and chip-based debit and credit cards.
Absa is offering its banking clients the Pebble for R50/month for the first 12 months and R20 thereafter. There is a once-off initiation fee of R160 for the first device ordered, and R30 for each Pebble thereafter. Merchant service fees are 3,2% across all card types. Non-Absa merchants can also use the Pebble, but pay 3,75%.
Though easy to use, the technology behind the Payment Pebble is complex and had to pass rigorous international payment card industry tests, especially to ensure it was as secure as possible, before it could be used in the financial system.
Understandably, Masie can’t talk about many of the security features, including anti-tampering systems, built into the Pebble. But, he says: “If you open the Pebble or physically tamper with it, it self-destructs – it will commit suicide.”
Thumbzup secured more than R100m in venture capital funding to design and build the Pebble, which recently went into production at a state-of-the-art contract electronics manufacturing facility in Randburg, north of Johannesburg. Masie recently gave TechCentral a tour of the facility (see pictures above).
The Pebble is available exclusively in South Africa through Absa for the next 12 months, though Masie is also talking to international financial services institutions interested in offering the device to their clients.
“The Payment Pebble has recently additionally passed all necessary certifications to be used as a chip and signature card acceptance mobile point of sale system. This immediately opens up several Asia-Pacific countries that have migrated from non-EMV magnetic stripe cards to chip and signature EMV status,” Masie says.
Watch an exclusive video interview with Stafford Masie:
In an earlier interview with TechCentral, Masie explained that although similar, in a way, to a US product called Square, the Pebble has a number of innovations that are not available on other smartphone-based payment platforms, including swipe and EMV-level chip-and-Pin functionality in one device and a patented Pin entry method where a software-based scroll wheel and random number generator are used to enhance security.
Now, Masie says, Thumbzup plans to make available application programming interfaces (APIs) to allow third-party developers to have their apps “speak” to the Payment Pebble. “The APIs are stitching together nicely and, combined with our Pebble emulator, will make it simple for developers to test and ultimately enable card payments via the Pebble in their own mobile applications.” — (c) 2014 NewsCentral Media
