New Joint Venture, MOLCube to enable small and medium-sized businesses to collect credit and debit card payments via smart mobile devices
KUALA LUMPUR, 5 October 2012 – MOL AccessPortal Sdn. Bhd., Asia’s leading e-payment service provider and a subsidiary of MOL Global Pte Ltd today signed a joint venture agreement with Soft Space International Sdn. Bhd. to establish MOLCube Sdn. Bhd., a mobile payment acquiring company that will focus on enabling small and medium-sized businesses to accept credit and debit card payments using mobile devices.
Under the agreement, the newly established company intends to become a Third Party Acquirer (TPA) that will further promote a cashless society by enabling more merchants to accept cashless transactions using the mobile phone, tablets and other such IP-Based smart devices using Soft Space’s EMV Level 2 compliant technology. Soft Space is one of three companies in the world that has been certified by EMVCo to perform credit and debit card processing on smart devices with such a certification.
MOL Global’s Group Chief Executive Officer Ganesh Kumar Bangah commented that the formation of the joint venture marks a significant milestone in the mobile payments industry not only in Malaysia but also for the region.
“Today’s announcement represents another important milestone in growing our product range which has grown from our MOLReloads infrastructure to MOLPoints micropayment system to our MOLPay e-commerce payment system. We will endeavour to further grow the MOLCube business just like our other businesses to become regional and global businesses quickly. We are presently in eight (8) countries worldwide and are intending to grow to 12 countries by the end of the year. All these countries will be target markets for the expansion of MOLCube. As a start, we will be targeting the associated companies within the Berjaya Group as the initial merchants for this product,” he said.
The joint venture company will also benefit from Soft Space's product portfolio, Research and Development (R&D) and MOL’s leading e-payment strength and international market- driven capabilities.
Mobile payment or M-payment is a service which is continually gaining in popularity as there are huge number of mobile phone users and bank card holders. Currently, in Malaysia, Bank Negara, the central bank is encouraging the growth of e-payments, through various methods.
The number of mobile payment subscribers worldwide was nearly 2 Billion users in 2011. The total value of mobile payment market is expected to cross US$ 500 Billion by 2014. Asia is expected to become one the most important market and accounting for more than 60 per cent of the total market share and 80 per cent of mobile payment users.
“We are glad to be working with an established regional and global player like MOL to expand our product base. MOL’s expertise, experience and market reach in both the online and e-payment industries will provide a great boon for commercialisation of technology innovation developed by Soft Space,” Chang Chew Soon, founder of Soft Space said.
The collaboration will further strengthen the companies’ objectives to provide safe and secure mobile payment transaction for corporations and individuals to accept credit cards through their mobile phones by swiping the card on the MOLCube card reader device.
Ganesh and Chew Soon were speaking at the signing ceremony between MOL and Soft Space. At the signing ceremony, MOL AccessPortal was represented by Ganesh, while Soft Space’s founder Chang Chew Soon signed on behalf of Soft Space. The significant event was witnessed by Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Vincent Tan, the founder of Berjaya and Datuk Vincent Lee, the Executive Chairman of Feotus International Sdn. Bhd.
The MOLCube chip card reader can be integrated to iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. It will also be compatible with Android and Windows Devices and will be launched in the current quarter.
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