Square boxing clever for slow cash flow
US mobile point-of-sale firm Square has launched its new Instant Deposit service for UK businesses at an event at London’s British Library.
Amidst the library’s dusty tomes and realms of knowledge, Square, possibly wearing a pair of old-fashioned glasses at the time, says the new product helps to solve one of the “biggest challenges small businesses face: managing cash flow”.
Square co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey says “since our founding, we’ve heard that cash flow is a major pain point for small businesses” and “our sellers should have the ability to access the money they’ve made as fast as possible”.
With Instant Deposit, the company says sellers can now click a button in the Square App to get their funds into their bank account in around 20 minutes. They need to link their account to their Square one to do this.
Square offers flat fees of 1.75% fee when taking in-person payments, and 2.5% for payments made over the phone, online or via digital invoice. Sellers using Instant Deposit will be charged an additional 1%.
Dorsey made the announcement as part of a fireside chat hosted by the British Library’s Business & IP Centre, in which he also set out his vision for Square in the UK, which was overwhelmingly positive as you can imagine and mentioned “empowerment”.
He also revealed that 75% of Square’s UK customers were outside of London as it “makes efforts” to reach those businesses who are not yet part of the credit and debit card economy.
