Proximity Commerce Pioneer Proxama Brings Expertise to the U.S. and Canada, Appoints General Manager for North America

Decade of Experience Developing Mobile Payments and Proximity Marketing Solutions Positions Proxama Ideally for North American NFC and BLE Boom

Proximity commerce pioneer Proxama brings expertise to the U.S. and Canada (Graphic: Business Wire)

SAN FRANCISCO--()--Proxama Inc., the global mobile marketing, loyalty and payments company, today announced it is expanding its global reach by launching operations in North America. To lead efforts in the region, Proxama has appointed Pascal Caillon to the position of General Manager for North America. Over the past decade, Proxama’s mobile proximity engagement and loyalty solution, TapPoint®, and mobile payment platform, CardGateway®, have acted as foundational technologies in those spaces. Proxama’s solutions have helped well-known brands, retailers, banks, payment schemes and media owners like Barclaycard, MasterCard, Harrods, Tesco, Starbucks, EE, Domino’s Pizza, Guinness, Exterion Media and many more set themselves apart from the competition.

Recent market advancements in Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon and Near Field Communication (NFC) technologies, such as the recently launched Apple Pay system and the October 2015 Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) mandate in the U.S., are pressing financial institutions, media owners, and merchants to rethink how these technologies can create new revenues and customer engagement opportunities.

“Our experience with Proxama came when we decided we wanted to change the way that cricket fans used mobile to interact with the sport at the Fifth Test Match of England vs. India,” said Elliott Moore, general manager at The KIA Oval. “With the company’s TapPoint platform as part of the event’s app, we were able to leverage proximity technologies such as beacons and geo-fencing to create a more enriching experience for attendees and enable digital capabilities, such as gaining access to live score feeds, at the cricket ground. The results were strong, with more than 25 percent of all targeted fans downloading and using the app. We look forward to working with Proxama again in the future.”

Proxama’s wealth of experience includes enabling NFC acquisition and redemption of offers and loyalty rewards, automating check-in through BLE beacons for advance ordering when consumers enter a restaurant, and allowing mobile NFC payments and offers redemption at the contactless Point-of-Sale using Host Card Emulation (HCE) and tokenization services. Proxama’s expertise will help retailers and banks offer more personal, convenient and real-time mobile commerce interactions to those consumers that reap the benefits of the 1.2 billion NFC-enabled smartphones that are predicted to ship globally by 2018. This number will now be even greater thanks to Apple support.

“By using NFC, we hoped to encourage app downloads, increase mobile sales and improve our multi-channel customer experience,” said Dominic Pemberton, head of publications & new media at Argos. “When we started looking to improve our proximity mobile marketing, we went straight to Proxama. Their credibility in the market and analytics provided by their TapPoint platform made them our number one choice. Proxama’s full support package was also a benefit to us; they have helped train our staff and offered support with implementing the technology.”

“We know that passengers are often faced with high dwell times within airports and as such our objective has always been to strategically place media to connect and engage consumers with brands,” commented Mark James, operations & development director at Eye Airports. “With the proliferation of smart devices, our strategy needs to remain relevant, and with TapPoint we are able to provide our customers with the ability to further engage with passengers by extending campaigns to mobile. Proxama’s technology, expertise and vast experience within the OOH media sector made them the natural partner of choice to achieve this objective rapidly.”

Proxama’s new General Manager for North America, Pascal Caillon, will lead the company’s efforts in the region, and will oversee operations in its San Francisco, New York City and Toronto offices. Caillon’s expertise in the mobile commerce field comes from time spent working at Visa, MasterCard and SanDisk, as well as managing clients like Dunkin’ Brands and PayPal. In the immediate future, as Proxama’s North American customer base grows, Proxama is expanding its engineering and sales teams.

“Apple Pay will teach users how simple it is to tap their phones to make a payment, putting us on the cusp of widespread NFC technology adoption. It has made now the perfect time to bring our expertise into the North American region,” said Caillon. “By leveraging our deep-rooted experience in Europe, a region that has been a leader in mobile commerce initiatives, we are confident that we can continue our momentum into the North American market. By connecting physical and mobile, we are able to help merchants, brands, and banks uncover opportunities for mobile loyalty programs, meaningful offers, frictionless payments and checkouts, and deeper customer relationships they never thought possible.”

Calls to Action:

  • Attend the BayPay Forum’s event, Mobile Payments: What can NFC, HCE, TEE and SE do for your business?, on Tuesday, October 14th at Wells Fargo in San Francisco. A panel of industry experts from Proxama, First Data Ventures, VeriFone, LOOP, Visa Global Mobile Product and others will discuss the technologies that support NFC mobile payments and how they will generate business opportunities for brands. Register to attend the event at: http://www.baypayforum.com/.
  • Meet Proxama at Money 20/20 from November 2-5th in Las Vegas. To arrange a meeting at the event, say “Hello!” at hello@proxama.com.
  • Read more about how Proxama is helping brands like Ubisoft and JCDecaux and others create new mobile commerce and engagement opportunities.
  • Follow and engage with Proxama on LinkedIn and Twitter.
  • Contact careers@proxama.com if you are interested in joining Proxama’s North American team, particularly to fill the company’s urgent need for a VP of Sales and Sales Engineer.

About Proxama
Proxama is a global platform provider of mobile proximity commerce solutions; mobile NFC contactless payments and mobile proximity marketing. Our solutions are used by banks, financial institutions, loyalty companies, media owners, stadium owners, retailers and brands.

Our two technology platforms, TapPoint® and CardGateway®, sit at the heart of our business. TapPoint® delivers proximity marketing and loyalty solutions for retailers, media owners, stadium owners and brands by utilising technologies such as NFC, Bluetooth LE (beacons), geo-fencing and QR codes. CardGateway® is our mobile contactless (NFC) payment platform that enables banks and card companies to transition their card portfolio onto mobile, for mobile contactless payments.

Contacts

March Communications
Nate Hubbell, 617-960-9857
proxama@marchpr.com

Release Summary

Decade of experience developing mobile payments and proximity marketing solutions positions Proxama ideally for North American NFC and BLE boom

Contacts

March Communications
Nate Hubbell, 617-960-9857
proxama@marchpr.com