Square (company)

Square is a San Francisco-based company that builds digital tools to aid entrepreneurs, business owners, and general society with sending or receiving payments using technology. The company has payment, hardware, and software systems that it has developed.

The company sells hardware, such as a point of sale (POS) system. It has analytics and sales reporting capabilities as well as the tracking of sales and inventory. Clients can use the POS to process their customers' payments that are made with credit or debit cards. The POS includes the Square register, customer display, a power adapter cable, and more. There is also a Square Terminal system that can also take payments and print receipts. Clients can buy smaller hardware that connects directly to their own smartphone or tablet and reads credit or debit cards. These devices are known as the "Magstripe" and "Contactless and Chip".

Square also has a mobile app called "Cash App", which can be used to instantly send or receive money. To use any of the company's solutions or services, clients must pay the fee according to the company's website.

Square offers an online platform for creating e-commerce websites capable of selling products and services, order fulfilment, shipping, and accepting online payments. E-commerce websites made on the Square online store are charged 2.9% + 30c per transaction on the website. Each site is free to make and is not subject to monthly fees. Websites built through the Square online store do not require any coding experience. Websites can be customized by integrating Square with other online e-commerce applications through prebuilt Square integrations. Square also offers developers an API for accepting online payments on sites they have built themselves.

Partners working with Square to integrate their services with the Square e-commerce platform include: Wix, WooCommerce, Intuit QuickBooks Online, GoDaddy, Acuity Scheduling, Mailchimp, Ecwid, Setmore Appointments, JotForm, Cuboh, PepperHQ, Push Operations, simPRO, Rezdy, Panierdachat, Deliverect, PandaDoc, and Domo.

On November 1, 2009 Square announced raising $10 million in series A funding from Khosla Ventures (lead investor), SV Angel, Xavier Niel, Shawn Fanning, Robin Chan, Marissa Mayer, Kevin Rose, Joshua Schachter, Jim Pitkow, and Grag Yaitanes, and other investors. At the time of announcing their series A funding round Square had a pre-money valuation of $30 million before publicly launching their services.

On January 10, 2011 Square announced raising $27.5 million in series B funding from Sequoia Capital (lead investor), Visa, Khosla Ventures. At the time of raising their series B funding round Square had a pre-money valuation of $212.5 million. The company plans on using their series B funding to hire more employees, and to expand its sales and marketing efforts.

On June 28, 2011 Square announced raising $100 million in series C funding from Kleiner Perkins (lead investor) and Tiger Global Management. At the time of raising their series C funding round Square had a pre-money evaluation of $900 million, and a post-money valuation above $1 billion.

On December 9, 2011 Square announced raising an additional $3 million in series C funding from Virgin Group and GGV Capital. Richard Branson made the following statement regarding his decision to invest in Square through his company Virgin Group:

[I] took interest in Square’s rapid growth and novel technology, in particular its free hardware that allows anyone to accept credit card payments anywhere, anytime.

On September 17, 2012 Square announced raising $200 million in series D funding from VMware, Tuesday Capital, Starbucks, Rizvi Traverse Management, and Citi Ventures. At the time of raising their series D funding round Square had a valuation of $3.25 billion.

On April 7, 2014 Square announced raising $100 million in debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Barclays Investment Bank.

On October 3, 2014 Square announced raising $150 million in series E funding from GIC (lead investor), Sozo Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Omega Venture Partners, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, GGV Capital, and Access Technology Ventures. At the time of raising their series E funding Square had a valuation of $6 billion.

On June 5, 2015 Square raised a venture capital round worth and undisclosed amount of money form Lightbank.