SumUp drives Taxi.de app payments

Partnership gives users of the Germany-wide taxi-hailing app the ability to pay for journeys with credit and debit cards

London – 7th December 2012: SumUp, the company that enables merchants to take debit and credit card payments with their smartphones, has entered into an exclusive partnership with Taxi.de, a mobile taxi-hailing service used by citizens across Germany. The ink has only just dried on a deal, which will enable Taxi.de to offer full card payment functionality through the SumUp API, so cab drivers will be able to accept debit and credit card payments from passengers through the Taxi.de app. In effect, the deal will address the inability of many German cabbies to accept card payments in an easy and affordable way.

Using the SumUp card reader, passengers will be able to pay for journeys by Visa, MasterCard, or debit card, and they will also be given the option to tip their driver when they pay for their ride. Drivers will be provided with free SumUp card readers, and there are no monthly charges or installation costs – the driver just pays a fixed 2.75% per transaction made. The service is free to use for passengers. In addition to the Taxi.de app, drivers will also be equipped with the SumUp App, meaning that they can take card payments from walk-in passengers, as well as those who have booked using the Taxi.de app.

Stefan Jeschonnek, Managing Director of SumUp, commented: “Our solution has been made with taxis in mind. It’s fast, easy-to-use, and mobile. With SumUp, cabbies never miss out on a fare, and passengers can pay however they want to pay. Given the increasing popularity of plastic, it’s surprising that a huge number of taxis in Germany don’t yet accept credit and debit card payments. By partnering with Taxi.de, we’re better placed than ever to tackle this issue – their apps are trusted and popular with people across Germany. Moreover, the sheer size of their driver network means that integrating our technology into Taxi.de’s apps allows us to make life that little bit more profitable for thousands of drivers – and that little bit more convenient for their passengers.”

Alex von Brandenstein, CEO of Taxi.de, commented: “Having achieved our aim of making it easy for people across Germany to hail a cab, we wanted to take the natural next step and find a way to make it easy for them to pay for their cabs as well. By partnering with SumUp we’ve been able to take that step to the benefit of both our users and our drivers. We expect the sheer convenience of SumUp – and its unimpeachable security credentials – will both find favour with our rapidly expanding userbase.”

The payment-enabled Taxi.de app will be available as of January 2013. The agreement with Taxi.de complements the agreements SumUp has already forged with numerous local and regional taxi associations in Germany. In Berlin alone, SumUp already reaches more than 300 taxi companies with its mobile card acceptance solution – equivalent to more than 10 per cent of all the taxi drivers in the capital. In conjunction with the deal, myTaxi – Taxi.de’s chief competitor – has reduced its payment fee for in-app payments from 3.9% (plus a fixed fee of €0.21 cents per transaction) to the same level to remain competitive.

Media contact: Robert Bownes | [email protected] | +44 20 7324 6190