ViVOtech, the near field communication (NFC) software and systems company, has raised an additional amount of Series D funding, according to a news release issued today. The company said this is an internal round, but did not disclose the investors or the amount. To date, ViVOtech has raised $96 million from Singapore’s EDBI, SingTel Innov8, Motorola Solutions Venture Capital, Alloy Ventures, Citi Ventures (the venture arm of Citigroup), Draper Fisher Jurveston, DFJ Gotham, First Data Corporation, Miven Ventures, Motorola Mobility, Nokia Growth Partners and NCR.
Founded in 2001, ViVOtech develops payment software, NFC smart posters, contactless readers/writers, and over-the-air card provisioning, and transaction management infrastructure software. NFC allows devices to exchange data over short distances with a wave or a tap. The company’s readers are found in big-name retailers and stores such as McDonald’s, Home Depot and Whole Foods as well as in taxi cabs.
ViVOtech has shipped nearly one million NFC payment readers to 328 customers in the United States and 181 customers internationally. The company says that it has shipped over half of the NFC payment terminals installed by merchants globally.
ViVOTech’s technology is also licensed by other companies and merchants to enable mobile payments. In fact, Google used ViVOtech’s technology for last year’s Google Wallet NFC push. Isis, the NFC joint venture between carriers AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon; also teamed with ViVOtech recently.
ViVOtech has also reportedly been looking at an IPO this year. According to Bloomberg BusinessWeek, the company has 80 percent of the U.S. market for NFC readers, and the company sales are in “double-digit millions” as of last year.
While ViVOtech says that it “stands to benefit significantly from,” the growth of NFC, it’s still not clear that NFC has the legs to become the de facto payment option for consumers. PayPal, Square and others seem to be shying away from making a big bet on the technology. Apple has yet to participate in the space and it’s still unclear if the iPhone maker will be adopting the technology.
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