Square buys Kili Technology for mobile payments tech

Square’s acquisition of Canadian payment processing company Kili Technology could boost plans to roll out a mobile and contactless card reader.

Toronto-based Kili produces solution-on-a-chip software for accepting contactless payments.

The company’s founding members Greg Wolfond and Afshin Rezayee started out at cloud-based authentication company Securekey. Now, Securekey’s hardware token team is part of Kili.

Square, which is prepared for the EMV transition with a chip and pin card reader, has yet to create a product that accepts payments using NFC. Kili’s involvement could add to the hardware and technical security available to Square, and help also expand its mobile payments infrastructure for merchants.

“The payments landscape is changing faster than ever — from EMV to NFC,” Square admitted, and we know that major technology shifts often leave small businesses behind.”

“That’s why we’ve acquired Kili Technology, a company that has developed silicon, electronics, and software that simplify and optimize payment processing.”

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