Landing in a very young, yet already competitive market, the Berlin-headquartered startup SumUp has just announced its launch in Russia. Like its US model, Square, and its Russian competitors, 2can, iPay, Pay-me and SellbyCell, SumUp empowers merchants to accept debit and credit card payments with their mobile devices. Its portable card reader comes with an app available for iPhone, iPad, and Android operating systems.
The startup has teamed up with Svyaznoy, Russia’s second-largest retailer of mobile phones and other electronic devices with nearly 3,000 outlets across the country. Russian businesses can now sign up for the service in Svyaznoy stores as well as on the localized version of SumUp’s website.
In addition to distributing SumUp-enabled devices, Svyaznoy retail stores will use them to accept card payments from their customers.
SumUp opened an office in Moscow in January 2013 in preparation for the launch. Its local team already includes more than 10 members.
The partnership with Svyaznoy is being complemented with online marketing and social media activities across various channels. “A great example of SumUp’s social media activities in Russia is our ‘iBabulya‘ launch campaign that went viral in Russia with several hundred thousand views over the last few days already,” SumUp’s Chief Marketing Officer Stefan Jeschonnek told East-West Digital News.
According to SumUp, the ‘iBabulya’ (‘iGrandma’) viral campaign has gained strong traction on Russian social networks.
SumUp takes a fee of 2.75% per transaction made using the SumUp card reader. SumUp is EMV and PCI-DSS certified, ensuring that payments are processed in accordance with the highest security standards.
The company was founded in 2011 and has major offices in Berlin, London, Dublin, Madrid and Milan. SumUp claims to be “the mobile point of sale company with the largest international footprint worldwide.” Its solution has been available in the UK, Germany, Ireland and Austria since August 2012, in the Netherlands, Spain, and Italy since November 2012, and in France, Portugal, and Belgium since December 2012.
