Dublin-headquartered card payments technology firm EVO Payments is investing €1.8 million in its Irish operation as it enters the British card payments market.
The company plans to hire an extra 10 staff in Dublin to deal with a partnership agreement signed with the AA in the UK to provide card-payment technology to UK merchants.
AA is diversifying its financial services offering, and this partnership comes as the company gears up to launch its CardPay service. The new company will offer solutions for debit and credit card acceptance and transaction processing for physical points of sale, e-commerce, and cash machines.
All of the business from the deal will be managed from the company’s Irish headquarters, including sales, support and marketing.
Although the AA already offers consumer finance and mortgage products, this deal sees it move into the business-to-business financial services sector.
"In partnering with the AA we are joining up with a universally trusted brand that prides itself on its market-leading financial products and first-class customer service," said Brian Cleary, managing director of EVO Ireland and UK.
David Searly, the director of AA financial services, said: "The challenges many SMEs have with payment terminals, often relating to opaque pricing tariffs and surprise add-ons, need to be put right and the status quo needs to be disrupted.
Simplicity
“Our partnership with EVO allows us to become a force for change in the UK card-payments market, to bring greater simplicity, trust, and fairness for our members.”
Earlier this year EVO Payments added to its Irish base by creating 50 new jobs as part of a €9.1 million investment. The company now employes 120 people from its Dublin base.
Operating under the BOI Payment Acceptance brand name in the Republic, EVO established a presence here in 2014 and works in partnership with Bank of Ireland.
AA Ireland is no longer associated with AA in the UK after the company split in 2016. Last week AA in the UK saw its share price plunge after the company's executive chairman, Bob Mackenzie, was fired for gross misconduct.
