ViVOtech has announced the launch of its ViVOtag sticker solution and its backend ViVOapps mLoyalty redemption software designed to "enable merchants to deliver targeted and engaging mobile advertising, marketing and loyalty programs to customers’ existing mobile phones." READ MORE

ViVOtech has announced that its NFC mobile payment wallet, Over-the-Air (OTA) provisioning, smart posters, coupon delivery and redemption technologies have been successfully deployed in Citi Tap and Pay, a pilot service that brings to India next-generation contactless credit card payments based on this emerging technology. Launched in July in the city of Bengaluru in India, Citi Tap and Pay is one of the world's largest and most comprehensive NFC mobile payment pilots.a READ MORE

Wright Express has announced that its multi-city NFC mobile payment pilot with Sheetz and ViVOtech has been successfully completed. According to the company, "during the trial, drivers used their Sheetz Fleet Business Advantage card loaded into their specially enabled Near Field Communication (NFC) mobile phones to make fuel and convenience store purchases at hundreds of Sheetz locations by just waving their NFC mobile phones at contactless-enabled readers. Wright Express was able to authorize and process the mobile transactions as easily as those done by drivers using plastic cards." READ MORE

Cubic Transportation Systems has announced it is providing new capabilities for the Cubic designed Tri-Reader® to enable an all-in-one reader that will process bank cards, prepaid cards and smart card-enabled mobile phones through an exclusive software development and licensing agreement with ViVOtech, a provider of point-of-sale (POS) readers for contactless and Near Field Communication (NFC) mobile phone payments. READ MORE

ViVOtech has announced that it has closed an $8.6m extension to its Series C round of funding from its existing investors, bringing the total investment in its series C round to more than $40m. Separately, the company also announced that it has been awarded a key NFC-related software patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Patent number 7,469,151 was awarded on December 23rd 2008 and covers" a broad range of methods, systems and products for over the air (OTA) provisioning of credit, debit, prepaid, loyalty and other payment or non-payment cards into mobile phone devices through wireless networks or the internet." READ MORE

Sheetz convenience stores and Wright Express have announced the launch of a multi-city trial of a new technology that enables drivers to make fuel purchases at Sheetz locations using their mobile phones. READ MORE

ViVOtech has announced that Don Kingsborough, CEO and found of Blackhawk Network, has been named to its Board of Directors. READ MORE

Libercard, ViVOtech and Inteligensa have announced they have "collaborated to develop the first Transit & Retail combination contactless payment implementation in Latin America. With the new technology, Brazilians in the city of Fortaleza use a single contactless payment card to ride local transit and make retail purchases. Libercard has enabled tens of thousands of transit riders with dual-purpose prepaid contactless cards to ride transit, pay for purchases and perform top-ups at several hundred retail stores in Fortaleza that use ViVOtech contactless payment devices implemented with Inteligensa integration expertise." READ MORE

ViVOtech has announced that its NFC mobile payment wallet, Over-the-Air (OTA) payment, coupon delivery and redemption technologies are being used jointly by NETS, SingTel and United Overseas Bank Ltd. (UOB) for an NFC mobile phone payment trial in Singapore. READ MORE

USA Technologies and ViVOtech have announced entering into an agreement by which ViVOtech would provide 25,000 contactless/magstripe card readers for USAT’s ePort technology.

ViVOtech has announced that it has secured an equity investment from Citi to develop mobile commerce technologies. Terms were not disclosed.

paybox and ViVOtech have announced they are partnering "to extend NFC-enabled remote and proximity m-Payments anytime and anywhere, in virtually any e-Commerce or m-Commerce scenario."

BART has announced that "a select group of BART riders is helping to launch a first-in-the-nation technological trial that will allow participants to walk up to any BART fare gate with a specially-equipped Sprint wireless phone and pay for their ride by tagging the phone on a reader located on top of the gate."

ViVOtech has announced that its "ViVOnfc infrastructure software for Near Field Communication (NFC) mobile phone payments is being used by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in its first NFC mobile phone payment launch in conjunction with MasterCard at the MasterCard Masters Golf Tournament."

NCR in partnership with ViVOtech has announced a suite of contactless payment terminals for the point of sale (POS) that "enable mobile and contactless payment at a variety of customer touch points, including retail checkout, restaurant drive-thru and the diner’s table."

Mark Schwanhausser writes for the San Jose Mercury News about contactless payments and Santa Clara, CA-based Vivotech, a major provider of contactless payment acceptance devices. Vivotech has announced closing a $22.5 million Series C financing round. Strategic investors in the round include First Data Corp. and NCR (here's the NCR press release announcing their participation in the financing).

ViVOtech and mFoundry have announced they will be working together to "provide mobile financial services to wireless customers. mFoundry’s and ViVOtech’s technologies, when combined, give consumers a simple new way to use their mobile phone for contactless payments, banking and commerce."

Business Week takes a look at mobile banking and payments - including Citibank's pilot with Obopay, PayPal Mobile, Firethorn and First Data's efforts including last week's investment in VIVOtech.

First Data Corp. has announced a strategic investment in ViVOtech and that it plans to use ViVOtech's collection of emerging technologies that include Near Field Communication (NFC) terminals and mobile commerce enablement. According to First Data, its investment will come in the form of acting as the lead investor in ViVOtech's Series C round of financing.

ViVOtech has partnered with Mobile Candy Dish to "provide consumers a complete end-to-end mobile commerce platform" by combining ViVOwallet OTA and NFC mobile payment software and the Mobile Candy Dish Blaze suite of mobile services. With the combined offering, the two companies say "consumers can use their mobile phone to get movie information and pay for tickets using any form of credit, debit or gift card, as well as to redeem theater tickets electronically without any delays at the venue by using the ViVOtech contactless readers."

ViVOtech has announced the f"irst deployment of an end-to-end NFC payment and promotion infrastructure software in Taiwan as part of a joint initiative by MasterCard, Taipei Fubon Bank and Taiwan Mobile. The three companies are launching a broad NFC mobile phone payment pilot program based on ViVOtech technologies in the region."

HSBC Credit Card Services has announced it has launched a mobile phone payments pilot based on Near Field Communications technology in partnership with MasterCard and ViVOtech.

Bend, Oregon-based RocketBux has announced it will be offering its mobile phone-based marketing services through an agreement with lViVOtech. RocketBux provides targeted retail offers and coupons as well as enhanced loyalty programs from merchants to participating mobile phone users and will use ViVOtech’s ViVOplatform as its SMS advertising delivery engine.

ViVOtech and Obopay have announced a partnership to "allow Obopay users to access the ViVOwallet to conveniently and securely pay for retail goods by waving their near field communications (NFC) mobile devices in front of the more than 160,000 retail outlets equipped with a ViVOtech point-of-sale device."

ViVOtech has announced the industry's first end-to-end Near Field Communication (NFC) payment solution.

The new ViVOnfc solution provides a secure infrastructure that will accelerate the adoption and usage of NFC enabled mobile phones. With ViVOnfc, users with NFC phones will be able to "carry their credit and debit cards virtually" and make Contactless payments at merchant locations.

NFC technology provides short-range wireless connectivity -- over a typical distance of just 2-4 inches. Since NFC devices do not operate over a carrier's radio spectrum, they can be used anywhere.

Philips and ViVOtech have announced a new initiative to deploy Philip's Near Field Communication (NFC) technology-based contactless payment solutions at merchant locations allowing an NFC-enabled mobile phone to be used as a payment and promotion device. READ MORE

VIVOtech has announced VIVOgiftcard, a contactless gift card solution for retailers.

 "The market for gift cards is immense and constitutes a critical element for adding revenues and growing a retailer's business. Gift cards are the fastest growing segment in the payment space with sales expected to total $36 to $38 billion for 2002, up 20% from the prior year. Gift cards account for 5% or more of total sales at major retailers," said Jorge Fernandes, CEO and co-founder of ViVOtech.

"Now, for the first time, retailers can differentiate their gift card product, enhance loyalty programs and provide a means to measure these programs. And they can help consumers at the same time by solving the wallet share problem and offering a delightful payment experience -- fast, flexible, secure and extremely convenient."