Daimler Financial Services bought PayCash Europe SA this week to make the Luxembourg-based firm the new electronic payment system for all services offered by the Daimler Group. The biggest immediate change from the German-based Mercedes manufacturer will be from a branding perspective, with the new acquisition taking on the name Mercedes Pay.
The fintech company specializes in smartphone mobile payments, and Daimler, following a trend of companies bulking up on their electronic transaction processing ability, believes it can help expand its push to expand in mobility. PayCash Europe, which was founded in 2012, also has a focus on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
“Daimler’s new payment system underscores our ambition, as a leading provider of digital mobility services, to make the products and services we offer even more appealing,” said Bodo Uebber, a member Daimler AG’s board of management that oversees Daimler Financial Services. “Mercedes Pay will be a central component of Daimler’s mobility and digitization strategy.”
The move to acquire the firm rather than partner for services represents another established company following the wave of bringing such processes in house. The Daimler Mobility Services business line already includes the car2go and mytaxi apps, so this new move is yet another step towards increased digitization.
The company also recently revealed the growth seen last year in its international car-sharing car2go platform. Rentals jumped 21% in 2016 over 2015, according to Daimler, with the highest customer growth coming in Madrid, Berlin, Vancouver, and Hamburg.
“Car2go is an integral part of our comprehensive mobility offer,“ said Klaus Entenmann, CEO of Daimler Financial Services. “More and more customers use our mobility services — and all of them have one thing in common: They want up-to-date, flexible and spontaneous mobility in their city — without owning a car.“