Jumio, a startup backed by Facebook founder Eduardo Saverin, will go live with its mobile payments service in two weeks, its chief executive said at a technology conference
Saverin, the cofounder of Facebook made famous by the film The Social Network, gave the company $6.5 million in its first round funding, according to VentureBeat.
Jumio currently offers a way for retailers to accept credit cards by waving a credit card in front of a webcam. But in two weeks, the service will let retailers take credit cards by using smartphone software and the camera on the back, which is a much better implementation because it means the point of sale can be anywhere.
Apparently the software knows the difference between a photo and a plastic credit card, so it also can't be fooled by a two-dimensional photo.
This isn't Saverin's only investment, he's also extremely active in startup Qwiki, where he's also an investor and responsible for the majority of its $8 million in funding. Saverin was forced out of Facebook and later sued the company and settled for an undisclosed amount -- but his name was restored to the company's masthead. Reports estimate the settlement ranging from $1 billion to $2.5 billion, based mostly on fluctuating Facebook valuation.
Although he's legally bound to a confidentiality agreement as part of his settlement with Facebook, Saverin still uses its name to promote his investments, such as when he said this about Jumio, "“I’m usually a critical person but the last time I have seen such a disruptive idea was actually Facebook."
