AOL Founder Launches Payments Firm

Publié le 28 septembre 2007 par The Washington Post

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AOL co-founder Steve Case has launched a payments company called Revolution Money which offers a free, PayPal-like money transfer service and a credit card with a low merchant fee. The company is backed by US$50 million in venture capital funding

The goal of Revolution Money is to challenge the status quo of networks and associations such as MasterCard, Visa and PayPal, says Aite Group analyst Adil Moussa.

Revolution Money’s Revolution Card can act either as a prepaid card linked to a bank account, or as a credit card with a line of credit. For security, cardholders are required to enter a PIN when carrying out purchases. There is also no name or account number on the card, to prevent identity theft.

Revolution Money says it will charge a one-half percent merchant fee for credit card transactions. This is a significant discount on the 1.9 percent charged by credit card companies, it says.

The Revolution Exchange money transfer service allows consumers to make Internet payments from their bank accounts without charge to other consumers or to merchants.

The board of Revolution Money includes former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, former Charles Schwab CEO David Pottruck, and former MasterCard International President and CEO Russell Hogg.