UPDATED 23:38 EDT / JANUARY 18 2017

EMERGING TECH

Daimler acquires bitcoin-friendly digital payments company PayCash

German car maker Daimler AG has acquired PayCash Europe SA, a Luxembourg-based digital payments company that supports bitcoin.

Founded in 2012, PayCash describes itself as an “Electronic Money Institution” that services the 28 European Union states with money transfers. Its platform includes a Mobile Payment Solution to offer and process mobile payments, an E-Money Solution to manage E-Money, a Crypto Currency Solution to implement virtual currencies into existing payment infrastructure and a Voucher & Loyalty Solution to provide targeted and valuable offerings to customers.

PayCash claims that its varied services allow businesses to process payments in the most convenient way without limitations of time and place, creating a higher value for businesses. Daimler will be using PayCash as the base of a new service under the “Mercedes Pay” brand.

“Mercedes Pay is a fundamental component of our mobility and digitization strategy,” Daimler Board of Management member Bodo Uebber said in a statement. “Daimler’s new payment system underscores our ambition, as a leading provider of digital mobility services, to make the products and services we offer even more appealing.”

Once the Mercedes Pay service is up and running, it will provide a channel for customers to pay for Daimler’s mobility offerings and services, including car sharing service car2go, the mytaxi taxi application and Daimler’s international financing service.

It’s not clear from reports whether Daimler will continue to support bitcoin payments, although in its press release it does describe PayCash as an “ePayment company…[that] also offers solutions for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and eWallet systems in addition to mobile payment services.” That suggests the company is fully aware of what it’s buying and that existing payment options, including bitcoin payments, may continue.

The price of the acquisition was not disclosed.

Image credit: dennism2/Flickr/CC by 2.0

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