PagPop, a Brazilian mobile card reader vendor, has announced it will join the Business Call to Action initiative, or BCtA, with plans to reach 300,000 new Brazilian credit card users in the next two years.

The BCtA is a global initiative that encourages companies to create inclusive business models offering the potential for developmental impact along with commercial success.

The initiative is a partnership between the Australian Agency for International Development, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the U.K. Department for International Development, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Global Compact and the Clinton Global Initiative to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

PagPop, with offices in Ribeirão Preto and Rio de Janeiro, has developed a card reader that attaches to Android- and iOS-based smartphones. The technology allows low-income Brazilian consumers and small and medium-sized businesses that have been excluded from traditional banking services to make and accept credit card payments via smartphones, landlines or computers.

According to the BCtA, PagPop plans allow consumers to make debit card payments using its platform and to roll out its mPOS services across Latin America. In Brazil, only an estimated 40 percent of the population has bank accounts, according to BCtA. In addition, the country has low rates of Internet access.

"(PagPop's) new commitment with the BCtA will help meet the growing needs in the mobile payment market," Sahba Sobhani, the BCtA's acting programme manager, said in a press release. "We are confident that PagPop will also provide the necessary tools to reach more consumers, expand its transaction options and capability, and offer greater social inclusion."

"We are pleased to join the Business Call to Action, which is aligned with our goal to empower low-income customers while promoting more efficient financial and payment service options," Marcio Campos, PagPop's CEO and founder, said.

Through its relationship with a large network of community partners, PagPop plans to reach more households and scale up its business model by registering users across the region. Its revenues come from transaction fees on each payment that employs its technology.

Investors in PagPop, which was founded in 2007 and was originally known as VitalCred, include Intel Capital, Cetus Investimentos and Maubisa Group. PagPop said it has about 60,000 clients, mostly comprising low-income, independent professionals.

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