X
Finance

Mint Wireless winds up AU$3m share placement, signs BNZ

Along with the news of its successful share placement, Mint Wireless announced on Friday morning that it will provide the Bank of New Zealand with a mobile payments system.
Written by Corinne Reichert, Contributor

Mobile payments solutions company Mint Wireless has signed on to provide the Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) with its system PayClip, while also announcing that it has concluded a share placement totalling around AU$3 million.

BNZ's PayClip device will facilitate enterprise and small business' use of an app to accept mobile MasterCard and Visa credit and debit card payments, with EFTPOS support coming soon. The device plugs into the headphone jack of most Apple, Android, and Windows Phone smartphones and tablets.

Use of the device attracts a 3.25 percent merchant services fee per transaction and a monthly fee of NZ$10 per PayClip device.

According to Alex Teoh, chief executive officer at Mint Wireless, the fees for such a secure card-payment service are negligible enough to attract SMBs.

"The Mint Wireless solution is the most secure, flexible, and affordable mobile payment platform available in the market today, and we are very pleased to be working with BNZ in providing this technology to its small business customers," Teoh said today.

The PayClip system will allow businesses to receive payments as rapidly as the next working day.

"Using Mint Wireless technology, we are able to address one of the biggest pain points for small and medium businesses — managing cash flow while waiting for payment," said Harry Ferreira, BNZ's head of small business.

"The PayClip solution will allow businesses to take payments on the spot, and funds will be in their account as early as the next business day."

Business customers of BNZ can register their interest from today, with PayClip's anticipated availability to be from October.

While continuing its pursuit of near-field communication (NFC) mobile payments, PayPal launched a similar mobile credit card reader in March last year. Its PayPal Here dongle also plugs in to the headphone jack of certain Android and iOS smartphones and tablets.

"PayPal has an advantage in being an established, trusted payment provider with a high-profile global brand," said Eden Zoller, an analyst with research firm Ovum, when PayPal rolled out its Here dongle in the UK in February this year.

The Mint Wireless share placement was offered to institutional shareholders at the discounted rate of 10 cents per share, with the profit to be used to further develop Mint's mobile payments system within the Australian, New Zealand, UK, and European markets.

Editorial standards