kevin.

Ingenico terminal + kevin. + bitcoin Please welcome our latest solution for digital currency. No card schemes involved. Soon more details!

Six months ago, we marked a significant milestone by opening our first-ever office in Dubai. In a recent interview with Business Tabloid, our co-founder Pavel Sokolovas discussed kevin.’s expansion into the region and the company's ambitions for the Middle East. A few highlights: 🔴 Over the next six months, we'll launch kevin.-powered payment schemes with leading issuers and acquirers in the GCC. By augmenting domestic schemes with NFC and aligning UX, we'll make moving money internationally as seamless as domestic payments. 🔴 Long-term, our goal is to become the primary payment infrastructure in the Middle East. By combining our technology with strong local partnerships, we aim to capture a 40-60% market share for in-store and online payments. To gain further insights into how kevin. is shaping the future of payments in the Middle East read the full article (p. 27)  here ▶️ https://lnkd.in/dK_2xmVs

How kevin. offers the best of both worlds. 🔴 How we pay is changing fast, with mobile wallet payments becoming more popular every day. However, every such transaction, even between the same bank (on-us), still goes through card networks. This adds unnecessary costs for the issuer, acquirer, and eventually, the merchant - whether or not a physical card is used. Due to these fees, solutions like QR code-based A2A payments are gaining traction. But their transaction speeds don’t come close to cards. Research shows that QR-based A2A payments take 10x longer than tapping a digital wallet. So, while A2A at POS is appealing, the user experience remains cumbersome unless it adopts NFC technology. This is what we’re achieving at kevin. Our A2A NFC payments offer the same tap-and-go convenience consumers expect but without cards getting in the way. We provide the speed and ease of mobile contactless payments with the cost savings of A2A transfers.

Digital wallets are becoming the go-to way to pay, but Europe needs to catch up. Worldpay’s latest report shows that in 2023, mobile wallets were used for 30% of POS payments worldwide, with a prediction of hitting ~50% by 2027. Yet, Europe’s adoption is slower. Here, digital wallets were only 13% of in-store payments last year, with an expected rise to just 27% by 2027. Why? Legacy card schemes still dominate the industry and resist giving way. Nevertheless, the market is shifting as the world moves faster towards digital payments, and Europeans demand more of them. At kevin., we’re ready to speed up this change. 🔴 Following our first A2A NFC transaction on iOS, we’ll help to reduce the gap between what Europeans want and what they can access.

Demand for alternative payment methods in-store is pressing. According to BCG's annual payment report, alternative payment methods (APMs) will make up nearly a third of POS payments by 2027. While e-commerce has embraced APMs, like A2A payments, in-store shoppers still rely on cards due to their convenience and familiarity. What's missing is an APM that's just as simple. One that works everywhere, for everyone, no learning required. kevin.'s NFC A2A payment network delivers exactly that 🔴 Our solution offers the same customer experience as cards, accelerating the shift away from them and their unnecessary fees.

🔴 What's next in how we pay?   Our EVP of Expansion, Milan Gauder, shed some light on this during a fireside chat at the recent PayTechShow. In Milan's view, kevin.’s A2A NFC payments are the only challenger to compete with card rails this decade. They offer a win-win incentive structure and contactless convenience that open banking and QR-A2A solutions lack. Plus, with Apple now letting European third-party wallet and payment providers leverage NFC, there's a big chance for them to improve how consumers pay, blending the A2A and card payment experience smoothly. For Milan, the future is A2A - moving beyond the legacy means we can lead the charge in payment innovations instead of just keeping up.

The first-ever account-to-account NFC transaction on an iPhone! 🔴 After years of Apple's tight control over NFC access on iOS, we're incredibly proud to be the first to leverage the new open NFC standard to enable A2A transactions. Our achievement comes on the heels of the European Commission pressuring Apple to open access to the iPhone's NFC chip. Now, with the Commission's support and changes to Apple's NFC policies, we're paving the way for open competition in the in-store payments space. Read more about how we achieved this technological breakthrough:

kevin. vs legacy: versatility. The payments industry has seen a variety of disruptive innovations, yet finding one that does it all has remained out of reach. Different players have their strengths but also limitations. 🔴 Global payment schemes have great UX and are accepted worldwide, but they usually come with high fees and lack local flexibility.  🔴 Domestic payment methods understand their local markets well but don't have international reach. 🔴 Bank transfers are cost-effective but limited to online and tend to struggle with UX. That’s where kevin. provides the golden ticket. As a white-label solution, partners can use our payment infrastructure under their own license, turning what used to be limitations into endless possibilities.

kevin. vs legacy: authenticity. Legacy technology has locked the payments industry into their brands for decades. Meanwhile, PSPs, digital wallets, and traditional banks want to highlight their own brands during the payment process. But legacy is in the way, limiting their brand presence and adding unnecessary costs. Being brand-agnostic, our network provides unparalleled versatility, making it compatible with various payment systems and devices. This flexibility guarantees consistent and ubiquitous payments. 🔴 With no legacy-induced limitations, partners can strengthen loyalty by being by the consumer's side during the entire payment journey. Our goal isn't to become the next big name in payments. We're here to spotlight our partners.

kevin. vs legacy: autonomy. Legacy technology has built a payments ecosystem defined by exclusion, not inclusion. Interlocking partnerships based on control, not cooperation. For many businesses, this is a constant battle. Steep fees, limited acceptance abroad, inflexibility, or lack of authority. All because they rely on systems they don't own. The barrier to entry has been too high to challenge until now. Built on a multi-tenant architecture, our payment infrastructure enables different players to independently design their own schemes on our rails. Each participant can operate by their own rules while benefiting from the scale, reach, and cost efficiency of kevin. network. By replacing dominance with multitenancy, we allow partners to set the rules and create better outcomes for all. 🔴