You've been redirected from MobilePaymentsToday.com to PaymentsDive.com. In March 2021, Mobile Payments Today became a part of Payments Dive. For the latest payments news, sign up for the daily newsletter.

Flint wants to spark interest in its dongle-free mobile POS solution

The market has one more way to process credit cards on a smartphone. Startup Flint Mobile Inc. announced that its iPhone payments app is leaving beta and will be generally available for use.

Like other mobile point-of sale-products, Flint's app is aimed at helping small businesses accept credit and debit cards. The major difference with Flint is that it eschews the card-reading dongle approach, instead relying on the smartphone's embedded camera to read the data. (It sounds reminiscent of the card-reading technology from Jumio.) Additionally, Flint said its solution is integrated with social marketing and includes customer engagement tools.

"Flint's mission is to empower everyday small business users who are out and about and who are underserved by other solutions," said Greg Goldfarb, co-founder and CEO of Flint Mobile. "We've worked very closely with our beta users to develop a compelling app and are excited to make it available to a broader audience."

Flint charges 1.95 percent plus $0.20 per transaction for debit cards and 2.95 percent plus $0.20 per transaction for credit cards.

The company was founded in 2011 and is based in Redwood City, Calif. 

For more stories about this topic, visit the POS research center.