Obama now accepting campaign donations through Square

It’s an election year, which means it is time for debates, caucuses, and campaign fundraising. This year, President Obama is going beyond the hefty check and taking donations using tech-darling Square.

“Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, running for president or local assembly, Square makes it easier than ever for candidates, organizations and volunteers to fundraise for their cause,” said a Square spokesperson.

Square allows businesses to accept credit card payments through their mobile … Continue Reading

Intuit releases debit card to be used with its mobile GoPayment system

Mobile payments are on the rise, but what about when a small merchant needs to make a payment? Intuit is releasing its own debit card, tethered to its mobile payments service GoPayment to help business owners keep the cash organized.

“In addition to helping them get paid, we’re helping them make payments,” said vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Payment Solutions division Chris Hylen in a statement. “This is just the beginning. Intuit will … Continue Reading

Gain Fitness grabs $650K to pump up its business

Gain Fitness, developer of an exercise application, wants to make personal trainer-quality workouts available to the masses. The San Francisco-based startup has raised a round of seed funding to develop a marketplace for fitness enthusiasts and professional trainers.

Today, Gain allows consumers to create fitness plans on its iPhone and web apps. The service is currently free to users, but Gain hopes to capture part of the $120 billion fitness industry with its next product … Continue Reading

Updated: Xoom, the money transfer company, gets a little money of its own: $25M from Sequoia

[Editor's note: Updated with quotes from Xoom's chief executive John Kunze.]

Money transfer company Xoom received a $25 million round of funding today, according to a Form D filed with the SEC. The round comes from existing investors, including Sequoia Capital and Keith Rabois, chief operating officer of payments service Square.

The company allows people from 30 different countries to transfer money to one another without needing a bank account. In lieu of a bank … Continue Reading

Get Square with Santa: Salvation Army volunteers now take donations with Square readers

You know how every holiday season you avoid eye-contact with the Salvation Army Santas collecting donations, mumbling “I don’t have any cash, sorry” as you hurry by? Well, now you’re totally screwed, Scrooge. This season, Salvation Army Santas are taking donations using Square!

Every year, more than 25,000 bell-ringing volunteers, some dressed at Saint Nick, hit the street corners near stores and shopping malls to collect change and small bills from holiday shoppers. Last year, … Continue Reading

Ditch those coupons: Square updates iOS and Android apps with loyalty features

Mobile payments startup Square has updated its popular iOS and Android apps to include loyalty tracking and discounts for regular customers and further hardware support for brick-and-mortar stores, the company revealed today.

“We’re enabling merchants to recognize regulars that use the Card Case application,” Megan Quinn, Square’s director of products, told VentureBeat. “With this update, there’s no need for coupons, punch cards or third-party apps.”

Square’s mobile payments service has seen incredible growth since its … Continue Reading

Dylan’s Desk: Welcome to the age of integration

Apple understands it. Amazon understands it.

But nearly every other gadget manufacturer is missing the point: It’s not about the specs any more. It’s about the ability of devices to deliver a seamless, integrated, easy-to-use experience that combines plenty of desirable content and useful services, with a minimum of hassle.

Call it “vertical integration” or whatever you want, it’s the strategy employed by successful companies like Apple, Amazon, Nike and Microsoft to make some of … Continue Reading

Square announces Sir Richard Branson to its lineup of storied investors

Mobile payments company Square announced that Sir Richard Branson is an investor today, after a Form D filed with the SEC recently confirmed its $100 million round of funding.

“As you know, I’m interested in a variety of sectors,” Branson told VentureBeat in an e-mail. “In recent years, thanks in part to Virgin America (being based in the Silicon Valley and doing a great job serving tech-savvy guests), I’ve learned more about tech in general … Continue Reading

Square’s updated Card Case app gets you a step closer to ditching your wallet

Mobile payments startup Square launched its Card Case app in mid-August with the promise of disrupting mobile payments even further by giving customers of Square retailers more info and control. Now, with today’s updated Card Case app, you can even pay Square merchants hands-free.

Square’s mobile payments service has seen incredibly huge growth since its debut in late 2009. The company is signing up between 30,000 and 50,000 new merchants each month and we just … Continue Reading

Square credit card readers coming to Wal-Mart & going mainstream

Square, the mobile payment system most often associated with small, hip, urban businesses, is coming to Wal-Mart.

That is to say, Wal-Mart won’t be using Square devices itself, but it will be selling them.

Square said it is signing up lots of new merchants these days — between 30,000 and 50,000 new merchants each month — and we’re sure having its mobile hardware available at such a ubiquitous retailer will only drive up the number … Continue Reading

Eduardo Saverin-backed Jumio to launch mobile payments service

Mobile payments startup Jumio will soon go live with its service to help retailers easily take credit cards using smartphones, the company said today.

Speaking at the final keynote of the CTIA Enterprise and Applications 2011 conference, Jumio CEO Daniel Mattes (pictured) said a major new part of its service will go live in two weeks. The company will allow retailers to take credit cards using the camera on an iPhone, Android or BlackBerry device.… Continue Reading

Confirmed: Square raises $100M, Mary Meeker, Vinod Khosla and Larry Summers now on board

Earlier reports of mobile payments provider Square raising $100 million that arose in June are now confirmed thanks to a Form D filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Chief operating officer Keith Rabois said the company is processing nearly $4 million in payments every day, and it expects to surpass $1 billion by year’s end. The company is signing up between 30,000 and 50,000 new merchants each month. The new funding round reportedly values … Continue Reading

Own takes aim at point-of-sale with ambitious hardware, software and cloud product

A small Detroit-based company has plans to reinvent the way restaurants, cafes and stores take money from customers.

Own is aiming to make a point-of-sale (POS) system that doesn’t just overhaul the cash register, it turns it into a node on a web-connected information system. Its solution combines the slickness of tablet hardware, the optimization of a custom operating system, and the flexibility of a cloud-based infrastructure to make it all happen.

That is, if … Continue Reading

Intuit’s payments team says mobile card readers will die

Payments and financial software provider Intuit has its own mobile card swipe reader, but that’s not stopping it from saying card readers’ days are numbered.

For all the development the company has sunk into its reader — two years’ worth, since the company began working on it in February 2009 — Intuit’s payments product manager Christopher Battles told VentureBeat that the card readers will be extinct as soon as a new technology can replace it.… Continue Reading

Mobile payments for dummies (infographic)

Confused about the many different flavors of mobile payments? The below infographic may help, courtesy of Mobile Payments Today.

The site has put together a truly useful diagram that cuts through the hype of mobile payments, and it delivers some useful projections to keep in mind as well. With the mobile payments market set to explode — Juniper predicts it will reach $670 billion by 2015, while Yankee Group thinks it could hit $1 trillion … Continue Reading

Max Levchin leaves Google, Slide gets axed — blame Google+

Just one week after Slide’s Photovine photosharing app officially debuted, it appears that trouble is afoot for the Google-owned social app startup.

Slide founder Max Levchin (pictured right), who also cofounded PayPal, is leaving Slide and Google, All Things Digital reports. Slide itself will be shut down in the next few months, and remaining employees will be shuffled into Google proper. Meanwhile, the company’s apps, including the messaging app Disco and its other photo-sharing app … Continue Reading

Square who? Intuit brings its GoPayment mobile card reader to Verizon Wireless stores

Intuit and Verizon Wireless announced this morning that they will be partnering to offer Intuit’s GoPayment mobile card reader in Verizon stores, bringing the device to more than 2,300 retail locations across the US.

Aside from the obvious benefit of more widespread availability, the partnership shines some much-needed light on Intuit’s two-year-old GoPayment technology. GoPayment launched a year before the more hyped mobile payment startup Square. which has made its tiny mobile credit card reader … Continue Reading

Look out, Square! Erply releases credit card reader for iPhone, iPad

Retail management software company Erply is planning a new mobile credit card reader for iOS devices, the company announced today.

Much like competitors Square and Intuit, Erply’s mobile card reader attachment will connect to iPads and iPhones and transmit a person’s credit card data to its own point of sale software for processing payments. It also connects to Erply’s inventory management software, which should cut down on record keeping for any of the company’s 20,000 … Continue Reading