ZAPA Partners With ViVOtech
ZAPA Partners With ViVOtech
ViVOtech Chooses Zapa 2 Run New Near Field Communications Platform For Mobile Payments in Europe
Silicon Valley-based ViVOtech, a leading enabler of mobile payments, loyalty cards and marketing solutions, has chosen Dublin-based Zapa Technology as its partner to help it roll out next generation Trusted Service Manager (TSM) services across Europe.
ViVOtech's loyalty and payments business is based on Near Field Communications (NFC) technology. It uses Over-The-Air (OTA) provisioning infrastructure software, smart posters, and contactless terminals to enable retailers around the globe to make payments and run loyalty and marketing schemes. It has 600,000 contactless and NFC payment terminals in more than 35 countries.
Zapa Technology has already built a significant merchant customer base in Europe by offering managed services for mobile loyalty coupons and payments based on ViVOtech's ViVOplatform and ViVOapps software.
Zapa's CEO John Nagle (pictured here on the right) said: "Zapa Technology has focused on executing commercial NFC programs. Having ViVOtech as a partner has enabled us to leverage a best of breed platform that retailers, banks and MNO's can depend on. ViVOtech selecting Zapa as its preferred partner to host TSM services to third parties endorses our strategic focus on execution and on building compelling retailer and consumer propositions."
Zapa uses Vivotech's NFC technology to enable retailers to deliver instant rewards and savings to customers through contactless terminals which transmit data to sticker-enabled phones a few inches away at the time of purchase.
Zapa has established itself as a leading provider of secure, fully-managed NFC solutions in Europe and the Irish company is expanding its roll out of a retail NFC infrastructure. Zapa's Clients include Irish towns which have implemented community loyalty schemes based on NFC to boost consumer spending in the local economy, to the Irish coffee shop chain Insomnia, which began using Zapa's NFC system to provide regular customers with a loyalty card scheme that gives discounts last year.
VivOtech chose Zapa because the US company wants a clear growth path from today's NFC (Near Field Communication) sticker-based solutions for existing phones to future handsets which will have integrated NFC technology when it becomes available.
ViVOtech President & Founder Mohammad Khan said "We are delighted to enable Zapa Technology with the full suite of ViVOtech's end-to-end mobile commerce solution, ViVOplatform and ViVOapps, to help Zapa roll out one of Europe's largest-ever mobile loyalty and payment programs to over 100,000 of its contactless Zapa Tag cardholders.
"ViVOtech believes in offering easy-to-use and highly intuitive mobile software solutions for the consumer. Using ViVOtech's mobile commerce software and patented over-the-air (OTA) provisioning platform, the Zapa commercial service will enable consumers to download their loyalty or payment card or coupon to their phones when they want it - in just seconds," Khan said.
In 2009, ViVOtech received the prestigious Frost and Sullivan North American Smart Cards Product Line Strategy of the Year Award. ViVOtech's investors include Citi, First Data Corporation, Motorola Ventures, NCR, and Nokia Growth Partners.
ZAPA Technology is headquartered in Dublin with operations in Ireland, Belgium and Germany. It plans to extend its operations to other territories in the near future. Its Management Team includes senior personnel from the European retail and online & mobile payment and transaction processing industries, with vast experience in establishing and managing loyalty, gift, prepayment and top up solutions.
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