Verizon Ventures has been keeping a close eye on the rapidly evolving mobile payments market.
Recently, Verizon Ventures revealed it added SimplyTapp to their portfolio, funding the startup with an undisclosed portion of SimplyTapp’s expected $8.4 million in investments in November of last year.
The HCE technology provider has pioneered HCE use, and its software allows developers to use mobile devices for NFC transactions using software alone.
Of particular interest has been Host Card Emulation (HCE), which can play a significant role in credential management. HCE offers the ability to clone various electronic identity cards digitally using software.
HCE is poised to set the stage for cloud-based credential management, which could serve a broad variety of applications such as hospitality, mobile payments, ticketing among others. It will allow any party to create a Near Field Communication (NFC) credential or identity for a mobile device without the need for a physical secure element.
Different industry segments that could largely benefit from SimplyTapp include:
- Banking: Banks can use SimplyTapp to equip their mobile apps with NFC and HCE capabilities that will help enhance security.
- Retail: SimplyTapp supports gift cards and private-label cards.
- Transit: SimplyTapp’s card cloning capabilities allow transport organisations to enable one-to-one access for
- Ticketing: SimplyTapp can deliver all types of tickets securely to a user’s mobile device.