A Chinese company claiming to be the world's third largest maker of point-of-sale payment terminals has launched its business in Australia, promising to shake up the market with its Android-based terminals.
PAX Technology has been setting up here for the past two or three years but last week had its official launch. The company will announce several deals in the new year.
PAX Technology Australia chief executive Nigel Lovell said the company would focus on supplying devices. It has no plans to operate as an acquirer or provide other financial services.
Lovell said the company was marketing to financial institutions, third party processors and merchants. It is considering following Square's lead of selling to small businesses through retail channels.
Lovell said: "The focus now is on empowering the merchant. Our technology allows merchants to ID the customer and get more transaction data on their own systems.
"The days of dumb terminals and proprietary software are numbered. In Australia, the advent of Open Banking is hastening a change in both consumer and merchant attitudes.
"At the moment abut 70 per cent of Australian POS terminals are not integrated to the electronic cash register, which means the merchant can't identify their customer or link them to their basket. PAX has solved this with its Android operating system."
PAX operates in 120 countries. It has an installed base of 38 million terminal and shipped 10 million this year.
It was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2010 and last financial year reported US$563 million of revenue.