Square’s Cash App, a mobile P2P and payments app has been growing very nicely in the U.S. At least that is what Square’s press releases want us to believe. The company doesn’t release volumes or growth numbers, but given the growth of the market and other competing solutions that do release volume figures, it’s easy to believe that Square is doing very well.
And now, with yesterday’s announcement like the one in TechCrunch, Square is ready to take the show on the road with the acquisition of European app Verse, an app that appears to have very similar features to Cash App in the U.S. Verse users can:
- Send and request funds from other consumers instantly
- Deposit money to a banking account in two days
- Split bills and share expenses
- Use an attached payment card to make purchases
Verse works in 16 countries in Europe and as such, also has foreign exchange capabilities provided by Visa. Here’s what TechCrunch had to say:
There are many similarities between Cash App and Verse. Verse’s main feature is that it lets you send and receive money from a mobile app. Users don’t pay any fees and transfers occur in just a few seconds.
Verse users sign up with their phone numbers, which means that you can send money to other users as long as you have their phone numbers in your address book. If you don’t have enough money on your Verse account, the app can charge your debit card directly. And if you want to withdraw money from your Verse account, you can transfer your balance to your bank account.
You can also track group expenses from the app (like Splitwise), create money pots and organize events with a basic ticketing feature.
More recently, Verse launched a Visa debit card in Spain, which lets you spend money on your Verse account directly. You don’t pay any foreign exchange fees and you get two free ATM withdrawals per month. Verse uses Visa’s exchange rate
Overview by Sarah Grotta, Director, Debit and Alternative Products Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group