Following a rather surprising report in TechCrunch on Sequoia Capital funded Prizm Payments, which appeared to mix up its ATM processing business with point-of-sales card processing business, we spoke with MD Loney Antony, and sought clarifications on what their plans are for the mobile based point-of-sales (PoS) business: On ATM versus Point of Sales: Prizm handles transactions through ATM and PoS, and a majority of that is through ATM. The total ATM transactions in the country are over $400 Billion. PoS networks, last financial year, processed a total of $30 Billion. Mobile PoS device: It replaces the physical POS device, wherein the card gets swiped, by putting a card reader on a mobile. It addresses businesses and merchants that are not covered by card payments. Dealing with connectivity issues during payments: it is as good or as bad as a mobile phone. Sourcing the device: Working with mswipe, and they've got the distributorship. We have the transaction processor behind it. We have the infrastrucutre which connects into visa and mastercard, and we have the ability to take a transaction and authorize it, and give the transactions to the bank for processing, so that the money can be given to the merchant. Different from mobile payments: There are solutions where there are cards not present, or wallet on the mobile, or the NCPI, where you link your card to your account, and you're transferring. This is not like that. It faciliates a card present transaction. Verification of payment: you can sign…
