Bangalore-based Ezetap has secured investment from American Express to help it bring mPOS technology to Asia and Africa.
According to the Economic Times, AmEx has taken a minority stake in Ezetap although the financial details have not been revealed.
The news comes just a month after the Indian startup raised around $8 million in a series b funding round led by Helion Advisors, Social+Capital and Berggruen Holdings.
Abhijit Bose, who co-founded Ezetap with Bhaktha Keshavacha in 2011, told the Economic Times: "This investment is a validation about what we are doing and the potential of the market."
The company entered the Indian market last January through a tie-up with Citibank to sell its Sqaure-like app and reader-based system for turning mobile phones into card payment acceptance devices through a tie-up with Citibank. It also works in Kenya with MasterCard and Equity Bank.
So far around 12,000 card readers have been sold but Ezetap is hoping to increase this to 100,000 within a year as it uses the latest funding to enter new markets throughout Africa and South East Asia.
Sanjay Rishi, president, American Express, South Asia, says: "Ezetap is one of the few mobile point of sale companies in the world that owns the entire technology stack from its hardware and application to its open platform, integration framework, and processing."
AmEx made an investment in Swedish mPOS firm iZettle in 2012.