Visa strikes mobile payments deals with Fundamo and Monitise

The credit card giant has acquired mobile payments firm Fundamo and extended its deal with Monitise with the aim of making transactions on any device “safe, easy and reliable,” says Visa’s head of mobile.

Visa's Bill Gajda
GAJDA: 'Our goal is to make transactions on any device safe, easy and reliable'

Visa has announced two major deals with mobile payments providers as it aims to extend its presence in the market.

The payments network has bought South African mobile financial services platform provider Fundamo and made a new deal with Monitise, adding that, together, they “accelerated Visa’s ability to bring financial services to banked and unbanked consumers worldwide”.

The deal with Fundamo, which offers a mobile wallet and mobile banking service, is worth some US$110m. The new five-year agreement with Monitise, meanwhile, is worth in excess of $10m to Monitise over the first three years, with the potential for greater revenues in years four and five.

Fundamo’s platform enables the delivery of mobile financial services to unbanked and under-banked consumers around the world. The new Visa Fundamo platform aims to add enhanced functionality and new services to existing mobile financial services subscribers across Africa, Asia and Latin America for safe, reliable and globally accepted payments solutions.

In February Fundamo told NFC World that an NFC-based version of their system was in the lab, with a final prototype expected mid-year and a trial towards the end of 2011.

“Fundamo is already delivering services like person-to-person payments, airtime top-up, and bill payment in more than 40 countries — with Visa, these services can integrate with VisaNet, adding interoperability and utility with the potential to connect billions of people to each other and to the global economy,” says Bill Gajda, Visa’s head of global mobile products.

“And through our extended relationship with Monitise, we will expand delivery of mobile financial services to Visa banked account holders — enabling electronic payments on the go for those who are more likely to transact on a mobile device than in person,” he added.

“Our goal is to make transactions on any device safe, easy and reliable,” he explains in a video Visa has produced to explain the reasoning behind the Fundamo acquisition and the new deal with Monitise:

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