Worldline and Unwire team up to boost digital payment tech in transportation

By Megha Bhattacharya

Worldline today announced a strategic cooperation with Danish FinTech and Mobility as a Service company, Unwire. The collaboration is expected to speed up digital payment technology in transportation and expand Worldline’s Mobility as a Service (MaaS) capabilities across the UK and Ireland as well as the rest of Europe.

According to the companies, the partnership will enable Worldline to combine its existing payment capabilities with Unwire’s multi-modal journey planning expertise to provide public transport users with access to plan, book, and pay for their journeys seamlessly through a dedicated app on their smartphones.

James Bain, Chief Executive Officer UK&I, at Worldline commented, “We already have a strong working partnership with Unwire which participated in our e-Payments Challenge last year and performed extremely well on that occasion with the capability to deliver into the Mass Transit market. At Worldline, we see Transport as the next major merchant market where ticketing will quickly be replaced by payments. Combining our resources was the logical next step, allowing Unwire to benefit from our payment expertise whilst we benefit from Unwire’s MaaS expertise and are very excited to be working with the team.”

Worldline already provides payment and mobility services through its capabilities in Open Payment, Validators, Acceptance and Acquiring, in various cities throughout France, such as Paris, Lyon, Dijon and Grenoble.

Jesper Thor Rasmussen, Chief Executive Officer, at Unwire added, “Participating in the e-Payments Challenge last year was an incredible experience for us, and we are grateful for the continued partnership we have established with Worldline. It has been a great journey collaborating with the experts, combining our expertise and solutions to deliver innovative mobile solutions to the market and keep pace with the evolution of customer needs.”

The Danish FinTech Unwire participated in Worldline’s e-Payments Challenge in 2019 and won in the category Recurring Payments with its Mobility platform integrated to Worldline’s Saferpay and Unwire BLE Connect for a seamless passenger journey.