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"Swedish mobile payments provider iZettle has announced a rather significant new investor after the company expanded its previously announced $31.4 million Series B round with the addition of payment giant American Express.\r\n\r\nThe company says that the investment from American Express -- which is undisclosed -- will provide it with &amp;quot;additional growth capital&amp;quot;, and the US payments firm will join iZettle's already stellar list of investors, which includes MasterCard\u00A0Greylock Partners, Index Ventures and others.\r\n\r\n\u201CThe payments landscape is changing rapidly and we believe iZettle\u2019s solution will play an important role in helping to further enable commerce \u2013 especially in small merchant segments that have historically relied on cash \u2013 by delivering a smart and convenient way for small businesses to accept consumer payments,\u201D said Werner Decker, Senior Vice President, Merchant Services Europe at American Express.\r\n\r\nThe round was announced in June and the capital is being used to develop the product -- which is snowballing into a major European rival to Square -- and push it into new markets.\r\n\r\nThat focus on expansion is made all the more important since \u00A0flagship US payments firm Square, freshly fuelled by a\u00A0$25 million round led by Starbucks, is still yet to make a move overseas. When it does, however, it will come with the coffee giant's support, which is likely to supply it with massively leverage in Europe.\r\n\r\niZettle is making its own progress however and already the company -- which began available for the iPad and iPhone -- has debuted an Android app in its home market in August. It is also\u00A0working on a Samsung app that is compatible with the Samsung Galaxy S II, S II LTE, S III and the Galaxy Note.\r\n\r\niZettle is currently only available in the Nordics but, as we reported earlier, the startup is\u00A0beta-testing its social payment solutions\u00A0with thousands of merchants in the United Kingdom to expand\u00A0beyond the Scandinavian markets\u00A0it has so far, and rather successfully, operated in.\r\n\r\nThe company says it has increased its\u00A0number of point of sale (POS) credit card terminals in the Nordics by more than 10 percent since it began operations in Sweden last August.\r\n\r\niZettle charges no monthly fee and 2.75 percent for MasterCard and Diners Club card payments, and 2.75 percent for American Express payments.\r\n\r\nWhile it may have snagged investment from MasterCard and now American Express, iZettle has found Visa's stance to be somewhat different. The credit giant\u00A0kicked up a fuss\u00A0and forced the Swedish startup to stop taking payments via its Visa system, no reason was given.\r\n\r\niZettle is, however, able to process Visa payments in Sweden.\r\n\r\nImage via Flickr /\u00A0Dahlstroms"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2012/10/23/izettle-europes-square-expands-series-b-with-investment-from-american-express/>