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Jack Dorsey targeting UK small businesses after launching Square from Holborn HQ

Global payments firm, Square, has officially launched its UK operations in London after soft launching earlier in the year.

Headed up by Twitter co-creator, Jack Dorsey, the firm is part of a new generation of payment businesses offering card terminals and services allowing small businesses to quickly and efficiently set up card payment provision for customers.

Competing with the likes of Paypal Here, iZettle and Shopify, Dorsey’s firm are relative latecomers to the market, having only begun offering payments in pound sterling back in January.

However, the Square Chief Executive Officer, speaking at a launch event this morning at the Piano Bar Soho, said he did not believe this was a major issue and that the firm still had plenty to offer with so many of the UK’s small businesses still failing to offer card payments.

He said: “There’s over 5m small businesses in the UK still not accepting card payments. It’s really a choice of participating in the economy or not.”

Based out of their Holborn office, which also forms the FinTech firm’s global headquarters, the move into the UK market makes it the fifth global market that it currently operates in, joining the US, Canada, Australia and Japan.

Utilising its slick square card terminal (hence the company name), Square take a percentage cut from every transaction and claim to be able to deposit cash from transactions into a business’ bank account the next working day, a facet which Dorsey believes is one of the company’s key differentiators.

The terminal links up to Square’s point of sale app via the vendor’s smartphone or tablet, allowing user’s to keep track of their transactions both in-person and via their online operations.

Following the launch, Sarah Harvey, Square UK Country Manager, commented: “Our simple hardware, transparent pricing and our suite of business tools make it easy and cost-effective for you to accept cards and manage your payments, and for your customers to pay with their card.

“We’re excited to be here in the UK and can’t wait to help businesses get started with Square.”

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