MasterCard Powers Wearables with Coin Partnership

Payments technology company MasterCard is bringing payments to a wide range of wearable devices including smart watches and fitness bands through a partnership with consumer electronics and financial software company Coin.

This collaboration is in line with the Commerce for Every Device program, which MasterCard announced in October aiming to transform any gadget, accessory or wearable into a payment device.

Under the partnership, Coin will provide the hardware and software to be integrated with the MasterCard Digital Enablement Service (MDES) and embedded into devices to enable seamless implementation of payment functionality into consumer products.

Coin’s technology, when used together with the MasterCard Digital Enablement Express also simplifies commercialization and empowers issuers to expand their devices offerings.

Sherri Haymond, Senior Vice President, Digital Payments, MasterCard, commented, “The great thing about the MasterCard program is that we are adding payment functionality to items that consumers are already using – fitness bands, jewelry, clothing, watches. This makes the products more useful for consumers and enhances the value device manufacturers can deliver to their customers. Coin complements that approach and enables us to reach an expanded set of device partners.”

“Coin’s Payment of Things platform is a turnkey solution to enable payments for the wearable/IoT industry. Leveraging Coin’s technology, device manufacturers will benefit from significantly reduced costs and time to market,” said Kanishk Parashar, CEO and Co-Founder of Coin. “MasterCard is our essential partner as we team up to enable the wearable domain that is projected to grow to an astounding $53 billion by 2019.”

Among the first companies that are working with MasterCard and Coin to integrate payment functionalities into their products are smartwatch maker Omate, advanced fitness tracker manufacturer Atlas Wearables and artificially intelligent personal trainer Moov.