tap-to-pay
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The Card Reader Disappears: CPOS Bets the Smallest Merchants Will Tap Their Phones
The Ottawa payments company spent a decade selling the machinery of checkout. Now its most interesting product removes the machine - and asks small merchants to trust the phone already in their pocket.
The Phone-Top-Up App That Grew Into Brazil's Financial Swiss Army Knife
RecargaPay started with prepaid minutes. Now it wants one app to handle the small, constant money jobs of Brazilian life - and turn that daily utility into credit, savings and merchant relationships.
Nearpay
Nearpay is a Riyadh-based fintech that turns any NFC-equipped smartphone into a payment terminal. Its payment-infrastructure-as-a-service platform gives banks, payment providers and developers a certified SoftPOS (tap-to-phone) SDK plus the full stack behind it - acceptance, compliance, certification, reconciliation and merchant dashboards - so businesses can accept in-person card payments in about 30 minutes without dedicated hardware. Founded in 2020, Nearpay was one of the first companies certified under Visa's tap-to-phone program, processed more than 40 million transactions in 2024, and in 2025 became the first Saudi payments fintech to expand into the United States.
Pomelo
Pomelo (Pomelo Group) is a London- and Singapore-based payments technology company that provides a unified, API-based Payment Platform-as-a-Service. It gives financial institutions, fintechs and enterprises ready-to-use payment rails, merchant onboarding and management, transaction monitoring, and a range of acceptance methods - from QR codes and tap-to-pay to payment links and card issuing - under a single white-label platform. Founded in 2017 as Pomelo Pay, the company has grown into a regulated e-money issuer serving 2,000+ businesses across the UK and Southeast Asia.
Ziina زينة
Ziina is a Dubai-based fintech that lets people and small businesses send, spend, and get paid from a phone. Launched in 2020 as one of the UAE's first peer-to-peer payment apps, it removes the friction of IBANs and Swift codes by moving money through a phone number, then extends into business tools: payment links, QR and NFC Tap to Pay, a checkout gateway for online stores, and an upcoming business card. Licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE as a stored value facility, Ziina has raised more than $30 million and serves tens of thousands of consumer and business customers across the MENA region.
NewStore
NewStore is a Boston-based retail technology company that gives brands a mobile-first, cloud platform to run their physical stores. Its modular Omnichannel-as-a-Service bundles an order management system, iPhone-based point of sale, inventory, store fulfillment, clienteling, and native consumer apps into one system, letting store associates check out shoppers, look up inventory, and fulfill online orders from a single device. Founded in 2015 by e-commerce pioneer Stephan Schambach, NewStore serves brands such as Burton, Marine Layer, Vince, Clarks, and G-Star Raw across more than 40 countries.
Ansa
Ansa is a San Francisco fintech that builds API-first, white-labeled stored-value wallet infrastructure for merchants. It lets brands launch their own branded digital wallet - the Starbucks-app model - where customers pre-load funds and pay in-app, online, or in-store. By batching many small purchases into one funded balance, Ansa cuts card processing fees on low-ticket transactions while adding incentives, loyalty, and analytics on top. Founded in 2022 by Adyen and Affirm alumni Sophia Goldberg and JT Cho, Ansa raised a $14M Series A in April 2024 (about 95% of it from female investors), bringing total funding to roughly $19.4M.
LISNR
LISNR is a Cincinnati-based technology company that moves data through sound. Its Radius ultrasonic SDK lets ordinary speakers and microphones transmit inaudible 'Smart Tones' between devices, enabling secure proximity detection, identity verification, and contactless transactions without Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, or QR codes. Founded in 2012 out of a 72-hour Startup Bus ride to SXSW, LISNR has grown into a data-over-audio leader backed by Visa, Mastercard, and Intel, serving payments, retail, mobility, and live-event clients.