Making Contactless Payments Acceptance Affordable and Flexible for European Merchants

Since its launch in 2012, French FinTech firm dejamobile has had one goal: help ecosystems make digital payments accessible to everyone, everywhere.

Targeting the payment, transport and retail industries, the company specializes in certified digital payments solutions based on the latest technologies like near-field communication (NFC), tokens and QR codes, and its products are marketed globally to acquiring or issuing banks, FinTechs and merchant service providers.

For issuers, dejamobile’s white-label solution with Visa, Mastercard and Cartes Bancaires is compatible with several mobile wallet providers, including Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, and it helps consumers digitize their cards into wallets. For acquirers, the solution is a way to offer their merchant clients an easy software point-of-sale (SoftPOS) solution to accept contactless payments on any Android smartphone or NFC-enabled device.

Even though merchants can use dedicated POS payment devices to receive payments, dejamobile CEO and Co-Founder Houssem Assadi said the cost to buy, use and maintain those payment devices can quickly add up into hundreds of dollars every year, making them inaccessible to small merchants with tight budgets.

Moreover, the fact that those devices are only dedicated to payments is another pain point for merchants, who want more flexibility and open solutions that allows them to implement features easily and quickly, like loyalty and cash management on a single device.

This is what makes dejamobile’s solution attractive to them, particularly the ability to simply install an application and turn any Android smartphone or NFC-enabled device into an affordable contactless payment acceptance terminal that is flexible and easy to deploy in several configurations for both small and bigger merchants, Assadi said.

Pandemic Headwinds Turn Into Tailwinds

The first few months of 2020 when the pandemic hit were difficult to navigate, especially for businesses based on physical payments.

But then governments and regulators worldwide began promoting contactless payments to minimize the spread of the virus, and that catapulted dejamobile’s business to new heights, Assadi said, especially in its home market of France where the limit for contactless payments was raised from 30 euros to 50 euros, resulting in a boom in contactless payments use.

“At the end of 2020 we started to see a very dynamic brand in terms of contactless payments in general, and in particular, merchants looking for new ways to equip their shops with contactless payment possibilities and capabilities,” he said, adding that dejamobile has recorded more than a 40% jump in turnover so far this year due to the increasing demand.

In September, the company was acquired by Market Pay, a European omnichannel payments platform founded by French retail giant Carrefour, and according to Assadi, it opened new international horizons for the startup, including access to a wide range of products and a global client base in countries like Denmark, Lithuania and Brazil.

“The idea here is not only to benefit from their local presence, but also from the product portfolio,” he said. “We’re able to bring a new value proposition to those markets by using their entire portfolio, by combining the acquirer offering from Market Pay with the digital payment technology dejamobile proposes.”

At launch, the business was primarily focused on issuing services and developing digital wallet solutions based on tokenization and contactless payments for customers, growing to become one of the pioneers behind that solution today.

The firm currently has 12 ongoing software projects and serves a customer base spanning three continents: Europe, Latin America and North Africa.

Competition is Good for Business

The company is not the only player in the space, but it has been able to differentiate itself from competitors by providing added value for their clients. Assadi referenced major industry players like Paris-based firm Antelop Solutions, owned by U.S. security firm Intrust, and Amsterdam-based chipmaker Gemalto that are strong competitors but only focus on digital wallet solutions for issuers targeting consumers.

In addition to that, working with major clients like Credit Agricole, a leading acquirer in France and the sixth largest in Europe, is an indication that the business is doing something right. Even before the acquisition, Market Pay, which is the third acquirer in France by volume, was one of the dejamobile’s first SoftPOS customers.

Commenting on the broader FinTech space, Assadi said there is a strong ecosystem both in France and in Europe given the support governments continue to give FinTech and technology growth in general.

That support has helped countries like France, which was far behind the U.K. a few years ago, come up to the same level in terms of investment in tech companies, he explained.

Having a highly digitized banking system in Europe also helps, he noted, adding that card payments were invented in France and Germany before expanding rapidly to other European countries like the U.K. and Spain.

“Today if you go to any of the big, legacy traditional banks, they are similar to technology companies with very strong IT departments and a real ability to implement and roll out new digital services,” he said.

Unlike in the U.S., European consumers are also eager to use contactless payments, and in places like Eastern Europe, there is a 100% contactless payments adoption rate, he added.

And now, armed with Market Pay’s broad range of in-store and eCommerce payment services, Assadi said dejamobile’s focus is to rapidly grow the business and expand further in North Africa, Latin America and across Europe while aiming to become the industry leader in SoftPOS solutions.