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Start-up Pago joins mobile POS fray

Published

Aug. 9, 2011

Another mobile payment company is jumping into an increasingly crowded pool. This time it's San Francisco-based start-up Pago Mobile. The company announced it is launching its services offering brick and mortar businesses a "new way to interact with their customers through smartphone technology."

The Pago system is similar to several mobile POS solutions already on the market. It uses an iPad that connects to a merchant's existing point of sale system or works on its own to interact with a consumer app on customer's mobile devices to make purchases.

According to the company, merchants can accept Pago with no startup costs and the consumer application is free as well. The app is currently available for iOS, Android and BlackBerry devices. A Windows Phone 7 version is coming soon, the company said.

"Pago is a lifestyle approach to commerce, inspired by the inefficiencies in daily transactions for both consumers and businesses," said Leo Rocco, Pago's founder and CEO, in the announcement. "From buying a morning coffee to picking up dry cleaning, we knew that commerce could be easier and more personalized."

"Through smartphone technology, customers can purchase at brick and mortar businesses with online efficiency, and businesses receive invaluable data – and the tools to use that data – to keep customers coming back," Rocco said.

The company said Pago can already be used to make purchases at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, as well as at more than 50 businesses in Mountain View, Calif. The company is working in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce of Mountain View to speed adoption of its payment method in and around Silicon Valley. The company said the Mountain View Chamber is looking to have 75 percent of all of its merchants accepting Pago by the end of 2011.

"Mountain View is the epicenter of Silicon Valley innovation and we are thrilled to support Pago's launch because it helps retail businesses take advantage of mobile commerce," said Oscar Garcia, Chamber of Commerce of Mountain View’s president and CEO, in the announcement.