We talked about Grabango, company that makes it possible to implement a automatic payment system in physical shops. On 9 January, we learned of the round of funding raised by the Californian company, which was led by Propel VC.

After observing the movements of the sector, we analysed the sales of companies most significant and confirmed in the last year 2018.

A strategic injection for Grabango

Image by @Grabango

Grabango is an American startup founded in 2016 and based in Berkeley, California. The company is dedicated to the provision of a technology solution that allows to implement an automatic payment system in physical shops.

Since joining three years ago, Grabango has accumulated 17 patents related to non-payment technologies and has signed four US clients that it claims serve more than 600 million shoppers per year.

On 7 January 2019, Grabango closed a $12 million Series A round of funding. The investment was led by Propel Venture Partners, BBVA's venture capital unit, and also involved Ridge Ventures, Abstract Ventures, Commerce Ventures and Founders Fund.

The company will use the funding to grow its product development team and expand the deployment of its technology in shops.

Sales of companies in the sector

Taking advantage of this round, our experts in sales of companies have sought to delve deeper into the payment systems sector. These are the most important transactions that have been confirmed recently:

1. Flyt

Founded in 2013 in London, Flyt describes itself as a software platform that helps restaurant groups and restaurant providers to integrating your point-of-sale (POS) systems with third-party services.

It currently works with more than 3,000 quick service restaurants, including some of the world's largest brands and KK, Tim Hortons, Mitchells and Butlers, Pizza Express and Nando's. The company is believed to has raised close to £12 million. since its foundation.

On 22 January 2019, Just Eat confirmed that it will purchase of the company London for a price of 22 million pounds. It is worth noting that Just Eat was already one of Flyt's investors (it held 8%), but this deal sees the food giant become a new investor in Flyt. majority owner.

Peter Duffy, CEO of Just Eat, commented after the deal: "The addition of Flyt to our group will accelerate the uptake of these services around the world and allow the Flyt team to innovate with exciting new technology solutions for the industry."

Vivonet

Founded in 2000 and based in Vancouver, Vivonet, offers solutions for POS, kiosks, kitchen systems, payments, labour scheduling and food and labour cost management.. Vivonet products are deployed in more than 4,000 locations, with customers including Sodexo, Delaware North, Booster Juice, Burger 21, Pita Pit and Texas Chicken & Burgers.

Inforone of the world's largest hospitality software providers, announced on 17 September 2018 the acquisition of Vivonet. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The acquisition expands Infor's suite of point-of-sale (POS) hospitality solutions and inventory and procurement functionality for businesses in food service or quick service restaurant management.

"Vivonet's specialised applications are highly complementary to Infor, creating a more complete suite for customers and expanding our marketing opportunity into three new micro-verticals for foodservice," said Charles Phillips, CEO of Infor.

3. Allure

Atlanta-based software development company Allure Global Solutions, was sold for $8.4 million. by digital marketing firm Creative Realities on 20 September 2018.

Allure is a company that provides software solutions, a suite of complementary services and ongoing support for its range of digital and digital media. POS solutions. The Atlanta-based company offers a wide range of products for theatres, restaurants, shops, theme parks and retail spaces.

It is currently operated as an independent subsidiary of Christie Digital Systems. It operates thousands of digital signage installations nationwide and "also has a strong partnership with Coca-Cola.

4. iZettle

Last year we learned of the sale of Swedish payments specialist iZettle to PayPal. 2.2 billion. On 20 September 2018, the process that started four months earlier was completed.

iZettle provides credit card readers to small businesses in Europe and South America and has also expanded into software and other financial services. At the beginning of 2018, iZettle said it planned to to be listed on the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange and raise around 2 billion SEK (£180 million), valuing the company at approximately £836 million.

The online payments giant confirmed its biggest acquisition to date, in a move designed to increase the range of services it offers to small businesses. PayPal chief Dan Schulman called the purchase "a strategic fit, with a shared mission, values and culture, and complementary product offerings and geographies. In today's digital world, consumers want to be able to shop when, where and how they want.