PCI Certification in Hand, Poynt Readies Rollout (Oct. 26, 2015)
A year after first unveiling its prototype, smart payment terminal maker Poynt Co. is preparing to go to market soon, company founder Osama Bedier tells Paybefore. Poynt’s hardware and software platform received multiple certifications from the PCI Security Standards Council earlier this month, and the company recently raised $28 million in funding to help support its terminal rollout. The PCI certifications were “a must” given the company’s strategy of distributing to merchants through banks and ISOs, Bedier says. But the complexity of the Poynt terminal—which accepts payments via traditional mag stripe, EMV, NFC, QR code and Bluetooth beacons—made the process of obtaining certification a complex one, he tells Paybefore. “Our terminal also has two screens, a touch pad, video, an app store and every kind of connectivity you can think of, so there was a lot of added complexity and things the [PCI] Council hadn’t seen before all in one place,” he notes.
With certification now in hand, Poynt is ready to capitalize on the migration to EMV acceptance, which has kicked into a new gear now that the payment networks’ liability shifts are in effect. “We timed our launch for the EMV migration, because it’s going to be the biggest payments infrastructure change in U.S. history,” with many merchants looking to upgrade their POS systems, Bedier says. But the shift to EMV won’t happen overnight, he notes—so a terminal that can accept virtually any form of payment is a valuable tool, especially given the concurrent rise in mobile payment methods like NFC and beacons.
Bedier says Poynt will begin shipping this quarter, starting with trial runs for various merchants, followed by expansion over the next three quarters. A $28 million Series B investment led by Oak HC/FT will help support manufacturing and shipping, according to Bedier. “We’re putting a lot of time and energy into making sure the integration and rollout is done properly,” he adds.
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