Poynt, the maker of new point-of-sale retail checkout terminals that can accept everything from old and new credit cards to mobile phone wallets, has raised an additional $28 million in funding so it can start shipping the product this quarter.
Founded by Osama Bedier, the former head of
The company's "smart" terminal is notable because it can accept a wide variety of payment types: classic magnetic stripe cards, new and more secure chip cards that use the so-called EMV (EuroPay
That's important because retailers often have to cobble together systems to accept all those forms of payment. It's also important for consumer acceptance of mobile wallets, most of which still can't be used at the majority of retail outlets because they don't yet have updated terminals. A raft of companies is competing to provide terminals, especially systems based on tablets such as Apple's iPad.
Poynt actually raised the round in May, but "we didn't want the competition to know how well we were funded," says Bedier. He opted for Oak because of its financial services focus, as well as its managing partner Ann Lamont, who's well-acquainted with financial industry companies Poynt needs as partners. She will join Poynt's board. "We wanted to get deeper connections into financial services," Bedier says.
The money will be used to gear up manufacturing of the terminal, which Bedier says will start shipping this quarter. That doesn't mean you'll see them in your local stores this year. Most of the terminals in the short term will be used for trial runs, though Bedier says he switched manufacturers in recent months to be able to produce tens of thousands of terminals a month.
Perhaps as important as the funding, Poynt also has won certification of the device for more than a dozen security, Federal Communications Commission, EMV and other standards. Poynt claims it's the first "fully certified smart terminal" on the market, though that's difficult to confirm since the term "smart terminal" is vague.
But Bedier says getting all those certifications, which makes the device more attractive to resellers and retailers, was a challenge because the Poynt terminal is unusual in having two screens, one facing the merchant and the other facing the customer, as well as apps that can run on it.
In fact, Poynt's business model calls for selling the terminal for close to cost and making money by taking a cut of subscriptions on business apps such as point-of sale and staff scheduling software that will run on the Poynt system.
In recent months, Poynt has beefed up its management ranks. It has hired Tony Miranz, former cofounder and CEO of streaming video service Vudu, which Wal-Mart bought in 2010, as chief operating officer. Aaron Leiba, formerly with Intel, Google, and Apple, is new VP of hardware engineering, and former eBay and PayPal executive Musaab At-Taras is VP of software development.
