Thought you were done hearing about Square for the month? Think again! The company is building momentum on its already-fabulous year by partnering with point-of-sale companies TouchBistro and Vend, who in previous years probably would have been thought of as Square’s competition.
“We’ve always been impressed by Square’s very elegant technology, as well as the ease of access to it,” said TouchBistro CEO and Founder Alex Barrrotti, and added that the partnership between the two companies has been years in the making. “We have a lot of restaurants who start out with Square processing and point of sale, and as they grow they want to keep their processing with a more robust POS service, so this gives them the best of both worlds.”
TouchBistro, which is Barrotti’s fourth start-up (he begun his career with the INEX Corporation, which sold in 1999 for around $45 million), is an I-Pad based POS solution that caters primarily to restaurants, while Vend is a cloud-based solution offered mainly to retailers.
Clients of both solutions will now enjoy full access to Square’s payment infrastructure and hardware, including its chip reader (in both its regular and table-top form); the hardware will also be compatible with Apple Pay in the US, which is where the integration is rolling out today, with plans to expand further in the year.
Clients will also have access to the services Square Capital provides, such as its small business loans, which definitely cannot be overlooked, as this arm of Square has demonstrated a growth of 123% year after year, in terms of loans extended.
On Square’s part, meanwhile, its processing and payments infrastructure will be combined with Vend and TouchBistro’s POS software, a partnership that will enable faster, more efficient solutions for clients, accordin to the company.
“I think Square is on a great run,” said Barrotti. “I think they’ve figured out what they’re good at it, which is more the processing side, and would rather partner with a software company like us instead of competing.”
To learn more about POS solutions, join us at Bank Innovation Israel this November 1-3 in Tel Aviv. Learn more and register here.