European Square rival iZettle today announced the availability of its API for developers, meaning that third-party software makers can incorporate iZettle-processed payments into their own applications, so that payments can be completed directly in third-party apps, rather than requiring a user to jump out to iZettle’s own software or complete the payment by other means offline.
In North America, Square already offers this functionality in select circumstances; we recently covered drchrono’s integration of Square payments into its iPad-based medical practice management app, for example. But iZettle’s move to offer access to its payment platform to a broad audience of developers via API means it will gain even more power as an alternative to Square’s service in markets where chip-and-pin cards dominate the payment industry.
“We started iZettle to make it possible for everyone to take secure card payments,” iZettle founder and CEO Jacob de Geer said in an interview. “Now we’re making our API available so even more merchants and apps can use our solution. We’re constantly at work with two things – improving the iZettle service and making iZettle available in more countries. Making our API available is more about improving our service but it also means iZettle will be more interesting for developers around the world.”
With iZettle gaining steam thanks to its recent trial expansion to the UK, as well as growth in its existing markets of Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway, this is one payments company to watch. The company now has over 50,000 merchant partners, and de Geer told us that interest in the UK so far has been promising.
“We’re very satisfied with the interest from small businesses around the U.K. not to mention the feedback from users we’ve had so far,” he said. “It’s obvious that there’s a great demand among small businesses in the U.K. for taking easy and secure chip card payments.”
The new, free API will likely help grow that user base, and get iZettle out in front of as many consumers as possible. Particularly if developers can come up with some interesting uses of the new payments integration, the Swedish company should be well on its way to securing a strong foothold in Europe. Just in time, too, as Square appears to be gearing up for international expansion, so a clash could be on the horizon.