CaixaBank, Global Payments, Samsung, Visa and Arval promote the first shared innovation “hub” to create the payment methods of the future

A multipurpose space for a multidisciplinary team

Leading companies in their sectors come together to work together to face the challenge of responding to new consumer habits.

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CaixaBank, Global Payments Inc., Samsung, Visa and Arval come together to create the Payment Innovation Hub, the first innovation hub in commerce and means of payment in Spain and one of the first in the world in which several partners, all leaders in their respective sectors, come together to jointly promote projects of R&D

 

The project has been announced in Barcelona, in an event that was attended by Juan Alcaraz, president of CaixaBank Payments and general director of CaixaBank; Frank Young, senior vice president of Global Payments; Victor Kim, EMEA director of Samsung Pay; Bertrand Sava, managing director for Southern Europe at Visa Europe; and Christophe Conegero, director of New Business at Arval.

 

El Payment Innovation Hub was born with the mission of making the best user experiences for shopping and commerce, online and offline, available to society. The center, which will be located in Barcelona, will specialize in the research and development of new commerce solutions to respond to new consumer habits.

 

Through the creation of the hub, the member companies will be able to share lines of work, use synergies and promote co-creation and learning from their experience as leaders of innovation in their different areas of activity. But, in addition, the hub was born with the vocation of being open to collaboration with other companies (start-ups, SMEs or large corporations) and institutions linked to research to jointly advance towards the payment methods of the future.

 

To launch the hub, an investment of 5 million euros is planned over the next 3 years.

 

El Payment Innovation Hub It will have a multidisciplinary R&D team with exclusive dedication, which will combine purely technological profiles with specialists in market analysis, business development and marketing. In addition, each project will incorporate the necessary collaborators, whether professionals or start-ups.

 

 

The “Payment Innovation Hub” will be located in Barcelona and will have an investment of 5 million euros, a multidisciplinary team with exclusive dedication and a space for the exchange of ideas, the promotion of creativity and shared innovation

 

 

 

Three research areas have been defined:

 

Car: Research into solutions linked to the connected car.

 

Home: Innovation around applications in the domestic sphere, with special attention to the Internet of the Things (IoT).

 

Shops: With projects on the evolution of the shopping experience both online and physically.

 

A space designed for innovation

The hub will have its own headquarters, specially designed for the exchange of ideas, the promotion of creativity and shared innovation and equipped with the appropriate infrastructure and resources.

 

The space will be distributed in meeting rooms and work places. The hub's nerve center will be located in the innovation laboratory, which will allow the various projects to be tested with users in conditions similar to real use situations. The facility will have the necessary tools to measure the different parameters of technological behavior, usability and customer response.

 

On Payment Innovation Hub There will also be space for dissemination and training. For this reason, the center will have classrooms for conferences and masterclasses, as well as a space for testing and exhibiting technological innovations.

 

The union of leaders in their sectors to work as a team

 

The hub was created with the aim of consolidating itself as a hub of innovation in payment methods of reference at an international level. In fact, the companies that promote their creation are among the most innovative in the world in their specialty.

 

In the case of CaixaBank, the financial institution is a leader in payment methods in Spain, with 15,3 million cards in circulation, a market share by billing of 23,1% and more than 335.000 POS installed, of which 90% are contactless. In 2016, CaixaBank cards invoiced 33.457 million euros in stores (14,3% above 2015) and 5.196 million euros in online purchases.