Mobile card reader Square funded by Visa

Twitter co-creator Jack Dorsey’s latest venture, Square – a credit card reader add on for smartphones – has won funding from an unlikely partner –Visa.

Although both firms operate in the same market and do card processing, they have said that their visions are in alignment. Financial terms of the investment were not revealed but a Visa executive will sit on Square’s advisory board as part of the deal.

Last month, Dorsey returned to Twitter as product lead and executive chairman. He quit the CEO position in October 2008 to be replaced by cofounder Evan Williams, before going on to found Square. Now he splits his time between the two.

Earlier this week Visa Europe issued a set of mobile acceptance security best practices for software and hardware providers, retailers and their acquirers. These best practices form part of Visa Europe’s ongoing strategy to advance security measures to help protect cardholder and account data when using mobile devices to facilitate the acceptance of card payments.

“Mobile technology is enabling a growing number of small and medium-sized retailers to accept payments using mobile devices. As retailers harness the power of mobile technology to accept payments and grow their businesses, the industry must also build in adequate controls and security measures to maintain stakeholder trust in electronic payments,” the firm said.

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Mobile card reader Square funded by Visa

Twitter co-creator Jack Dorsey’s latest venture, Square – a credit card reader add on for smartphones – has won funding from an unlikely partner –Visa.

Although both firms operate in the same market and do card processing said that their visions are in alignment. Financial terms of the investment were not revealed but a Visa executive will sit on Square’s advisory board as part of the deal.

Last month, Dorsey returned to Twitter as product lead and executive chairman. He quit the CEO position in October 2008 to be replaced by cofounder Evan Williams, before going on to found Square. Now he splits his time between the two.

Earlier this week Visa Europe issued a set of mobile acceptance security best practices for software and hardware providers, retailers and their acquirers. These best practices form part of Visa Europe’s ongoing strategy to advance security measures to help protect cardholder and account data when using mobile devices to facilitate the acceptance of card payments.

“Mobile technology is enabling a growing number of small and medium-sized retailers to accept payments using mobile devices. As retailers harness the power of mobile technology to accept payments and grow their businesses, the industry must also build in adequate controls and security measures to maintain stakeholder trust in electronic payments,” the firm said.