Visa is rolling out a new platform to enable acquirers, point of sale (POS) manufacturers, and Internet of Things (IoT) leaders to move payment processing software from being embedded in devices to universally accessible in the cloud.
The newly launched Visa Acceptance Cloud (VAC) is being piloted in six locations — North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. The new platform is striving to help innovators transform just about any device into a cloud-connected payment terminal, according to a press release on Thursday (Jan. 13).
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VAC offers seamless, cloud-based software updates, along with powerful analytics, and network services from Visa. VAC operates on Visa’s data centers, which offers the latest data security capabilities.
“Cloud acceptance is the future of payments,” said Mary Kay Bowman, senior vice president and global head of payment and platform products, Visa. “Cloud-connected POS lets sellers accept payments across a range of devices quickly, simply, and safely, whether at an unattended kiosk in a hotel, a mirror in a high-end retail store or virtual in-home gym, or a smartphone in the hands of a small seller with a roadside newsstand.”
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Tap to Phone, launched in January 2020, was Visa’s first solution to turn devices into POS terminals just by downloading an app. There were over 300,000 devices across 54 countries using Tap to Phone as of December 2021, according to the release.
VAC moves beyond phones and enables payments on any POS or connected device. The platform also integrates a range of additional services, including buy now, pay later (BNPL), fraud management, Rapid Seller Onboarding and advanced data analytics. The ongoing pilots have traversed numerous use cases, including retailers and restaurants in Australia through Visa’s work with U.S.-based fintech Bleu, NOBAL Technologies’ smart mirror, and public trains in Brazil.
“Bleu is working with Visa to bring seamless payments to businesses across Australia for the very first time,” said Sesie Bonsi, President and CEO of Bleu.
“While the average business owner can spend as much as $1,000 on POS devices, plus countless hours and more money on time-consuming certification processes, moving to Visa Acceptance Cloud remove the barriers of traditional hardware and burdens of device-bound kernel certifications, making it easier for the independent business that we serve to deliver touchless payment options to their customers through any connected device,” Bonsi said.
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