Square Expects New Financing and a Loftier Value

As on-the-go payment-processing technologies continue to gain popularity with merchants and consumers, the mobile payments market is becoming increasingly competitive, with more and more new innovations on the rise and more and more investors dropping large chunks of change into it.

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Rumor has it that mobile payments service provider Square is on the verge of bringing in yet another hefty round of funding – this one said to be roughly $200 million – which would give the start-up an implied valuation of $3.25 billion and would strengthen its posture against competitors such as Google, Intuit, and PayPal.

Best known for its square, “pint-size” credit card reader for smartphones, Square’s number of users doubled to roughly two million in the first half of 2012 and it is currently processing $6 billion in transactions a year. The company also rolled out its Square Register, an app for small businesses to use iPads as credit card registers, and Pay With Square, an app for consumers to open “tabs” with vendors for in-store shopping by linking in their credit card accounts.

Square does have competition however, with so many other players out there also introducing new mobile payments products. Read up on the growing market for these technologies and see what’s working for Square.

CHART: Here's How Fast Square Is Growing

Square, the payments startup run by Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, is growing payments volume at a runaway clip.

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For Square, payments volume is a very close proxy for revenues: It takes a 2.75% cut of most transactions, which it then splits with Visa, MasterCard, and the banks.

The company has 330 employees at last count. We don't believe it's profitable yet, but at these growth rates—20 percent in the last two months—it could easily make money if it chose to. We think instead it's going to keep spending to acquire small-business customers.

View the full size chart and read more about Square and how it could impact your CU.