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​NAB and Elavon back smart payment terminal OS Poynt in $100m round

Poynt wants to fix a 'broken' commerce infrastructure by bringing developers, distributors, and merchants together on an open platform.
Written by Asha Barbaschow, Contributor
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Poynt Smart Terminal

Image: Supplied

Poynt has announced raising $100 million in a Series C round from investors such as the National Australia Bank (NAB) and US Bancorp's credit card transaction processing subsidiary Elevon.

The California-based startup founded by Osama Bedier -- who was formerly Google Wallet and Payments VP and PayPal's VP of product development -- develops an open operating system for "smart" payment terminals.

Poynt wants to create a new app economy for merchants with its Android-based OS. Running on Android, Poynt said its offering is hardware-agnostic and plugs into new and legacy retail software systems, allowing merchants to "extend their capabilities with third party and custom apps".

Approximately 8,000 developers currently build on Poynt.

The company expects Poynt OS adoption on at least half of the world's top payment terminal manufacturers in 2019, having shipped nearly 150,000 terminals in the last 16 months.

Nearly 30 million consumers have transacted on a Poynt terminal, and total payment volume is expected to exceed $25 billion over the next 12 months, Poynt said in a statement.

In addition to Elevon and NAB, the company has signed partnerships with Evertec, Vantiv/Worldpay, JP Morgan Chase, Rede, Alipay, Nexi, EVO, and Mashreq Bank.

"Smartphones changed the way we search, buy, and communicate -- not only because the hardware was beautiful, but because iOS and Android transformed a ubiquitous utility into a platform for innovation where developers could build once and distribute everywhere," CEO Bedier said.

"Our vision is to transform retail by becoming that innovation platform for payment terminals everywhere. We give developers a technical canvas to build the omnichannel experiences merchants and their customers have come to expect -- and ultimately, make visiting your local store the personal experience it was always meant to be."

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