Photo: Fast Company
Square, a popular mobile payments and financial services company among small businesses, has just recently filed its initial public offering of shares of Class A common stock with the SEC. Since its founding in 2009, Square has exploded into the public consciousness, riding the mobile payments wave along with Apple’s (AAPL – Analyst Report) Apple Pay and Samsung Electronics’ Samsung Pay, among others.
Should you invest in Square? Let’s take a look at 7 facts about the burgeoning payments company before its upcoming IPO.
1. Square was co-founded by Jack Dorsey, who is now the newly-reinstated CEO of social media company Twitter (TWTR – Analyst Report). Dorsey got the inspiration for his second company—he was one of three co-founders of Twitter back in 2006—when his friend Jim McKelvey had trouble completing a $2,000 sale of his glass products because he could not process credit cards; McKelvey is the other co-founder of Square.
2. The company has 3 main products, all of which process Visa (V – Analyst Report), MasterCard (MA – Analyst Report), Discover (DFS – Analyst Report), and American Express (AXP – Analyst Report) purchases at 2.75% per swipe. There is the Square Magstripe Reader, which is Square’s first product, which is uses the Square Register app to accept credit card payments by connecting to a tablet’s or smartphone’s audio jack; the Square Contactless and Chip Reader that connects wirelessly to the app to accept contactless payment systems and EMV chip cards; and the Square Stand, which is a point-of-sale stand for iPad that too utilizes the Square Register app to process payments.
3. Square is headquartered on the bustling Market Street in San Francisco, a city that has seen large growth in technology start-ups in the past few years.
4. Square has recently acquired Caviar, a start-up that delivers meals from high-end restaurants; it uses a fleet of couriers to provide delivery in 18 U.S. markets from popular restaurants who would not otherwise deliver.
5. In its SEC filing, the company notes that for the six months ended June 30, 2015, Square’s total net revenue grew to $560.6 million, up 51% from the six months ended June 30, 2014, a strong indication for continued rapid growth.
6. Square prides itself on its strong customer engagement. Its customer relationship management (CRM) software can track and compile your customer’s information—think names, email addresses, phone numbers, purchases, etc—in one place. CRM also allows businesses to target their customers with tailored messages based on previous purchase behavior.
7. Square has plans to expand globally. “We evaluate many factors when choosing to enter a new country, including market opportunity, technology adoption, and the regulatory environment. We plan to expand into additional countries to broaden payment card acceptance worldwide and to increase our market opportunity,” the company says in its filing.
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