US payments industry expert invests in Dublin start-up


22 Jun 2010

Dublin-based tech start-up WorldNet has completed an investment round with US payments industry expert David Dove.

Dove, managing partner of investing and consulting firm Dove Capital Partners LLC, is a veteran of the payment industry, having spent 25 years that included founding and running Dove Consulting Group that was later sold to Hitachi Consulting in 2005.

He will also join the board of WorldNet, a start-up that provides a secure online payments gateway for businesses selling online, via mobile and through call centres across Ireland, the UK and mainland Europe.

Recently WorldNet launched an iPhone app in the form of iPay, an app that will allow developers to embed credit card payments into their apps for the first time.

This is an industry first and will allow E-commerce merchants to use the iPhone as an additional payments channel.

Before this all payments from iPhone apps have been processed by Apple and this results in Apple retaining 40pc of the revenue whereas iPay lets the payment get processed by the merchant’s existing bank without having to pass through Apple’s payment infrastructure.

“I am delighted to announce the development of the first open card payment library for the iPhone, as our latest product innovation for our customers,” said John Clarke, WorldNet head of product innovation.

“The iPhone has the potential to be a game-changer in enabling mCommerce. This innovation unlocks that potential, and opens the iPhone up to a whole new audience, allowing eCommerce merchants to sell as efficiently via an app as they currently do via their web sites,” he added.

“Currently mCommerce on the iPhone is restricted to smaller ticket items, and digital goods, as the iPhone charging structure make it unattractive to eCommerce merchants.

The release of iPay marks a major expansion of the potential reach of the iPhone, and a real step forward towards making mCommerce a reality.”