VeriFone Systems Inc. today announced taxi passengers in Philadelphia can now use Way2ride, VeriFone's sound-based mobile app for proximity payments, to pay for taxi rides with a tap of their smartphones, according to a press release.

Passengers can use Way2ride to pay for cab fares in 1,400 of the 1,600 taxi cabs currently operating in Philadelphia. Passengers can download the free Way2ride app to their iOS or Android smartphones online from the App Store, Google Play or way2ride.com—even during their ride—and pre-load payment information and preferred tip amounts. Digital receipts are immediately emailed to the passenger and stored in the app and online portal for easy access and expensing of business trips, according to the press release.

"The launch of Way2ride in nearly every cab operating in the city of Philadelphia is a result of the considerable success it has experienced following the app's initial launch in New York City," Amos Tamam, senior vice president of Taxi Systems for VeriFone, said in a press release.

Since its October 2013 debut, Way2ride is now accepted by more than 11,000 NYC yellow taxis and green "borough taxis," and it has been used to complete more than 500,000 mobile transactions.

After the Philadelphia launch, VeriFone will continue expanding Way2ride acceptance throughout its network of more than 70,000 payment-enabled taxis worldwide, according to the press release.

Way2ride is built on VeriFone's open API cloud platform, which allows developers to create apps with secure payment, messaging and other value-added services leveraging VeriFone's secure mobile commerce network.