Accumulate To Provide Mobile Payment Solution To Swedish Operators
Sweden-based mobile payment and security provider Accumulate has been selected as the supplier of a mobile wallet service to 4T, a new payment solutions consortium created by Sweden’s four mobile network operators.
Taking advantage of NFC when available, the mobile payment service promises to be an alternative to cash and card payments in all payment situations, including point-of-sale, online, person-to-person and man-to-machine. According to Stefan Hultberg, CEO of Accumulate, the deal is a major breakthrough for mobile payments and an important milestone for the company.
Mobile Payment Solutions Developer Accumulate Lands VC Funding
Accumulate, a Swedish mobile payment and security solution provider, received an investment from The Sixth Swedish National Pension Fund (The Sixth AP Fund; Sjätte AP-fonden). The Sixth AP fund is the so called Swedish state fund for long-term risk capital, investing in small and medium-sized growth companies. http://www.apfond6.se/en/The size of the investment has not been disclosed.
Accumulate had an angel round in 2008 in which Carl Palmstierna, a famous Swedish business angel, and Patric Svanberg invested in the company. Carl Palmstierna is currently the chairman of the board.
Accumulate's CEO and co-founder Stefan Hultberg comments that the cash will be used in expanding the business of Accumulate's mobile service platform Flexion and its new mobile security solution, which is in an establishment phase.
The mobile service platform Flexion allows for flexible pricing and license control of mobile applications and games, and is managed by Accumulate's UK subsidiary. The company has business for example with Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and Samsung, and despite strong revenue growth needed new cash for working capital due to the notoriously long payment cycles in the mobile business. Accumulate will also strengthen its operations team. Accumulate claims to have served 6 million end users up to date.
Accumulate's mobile security solution can be utilized for example for securing credit card purchases and person-to-person money transfers, for secure logins and signing, and enabling payments by mobile phone. The first pilot project is starting next month, according to Stefan. Also an OpenID based solution is coming still this summer. Stefan identifies the banking segment as the most interesting target for the solution, though they can be slow in adapting new technology. In addition, Accumulate is also interested in other industries and especially the enterprise security market. In order to reach the enterprise market Accumulate will utilize a channel sales strategy, having just a couple weeks ago hired a channel sales manager for building up the partnerships.
The press release (in Swedish; here is Google translated version).
Accumulate, a Swedish mobile payment and security solution provider, has received an investment from The Sixth Swedish National Pension Fund (The Sixth AP Fund; Sjätte AP-fonden). The Sixth AP fund is the so called Swedish state fund for longterm risk capital, investing in small and medium-sized growth companies. The size of the investment has not been disclosed.
