In order to boost Google Wallet, Google acquired TxVia, a payment technology company that has supported the management of over 100 million accounts since 2008. It is no secret that Google Wallet has had a difficult time since launching about a year ago. Since then, any momentum it had created was squelched when it failed to secure partnerships with the four major wireless providers in the U.S. Today, it only works on a handful of Android smartphones sold by Sprint.
“Today, we’re thrilled to announce that we’ve acquired payments technology company TxVia to complement our payments capabilities and accelerate innovation towards our full Google Wallet vision. TxVia is a technology pioneer that offers a fast, flexible and highly reliable payments platform–which we believe is one of the best in the world.”
The defections show that there’s an internal lack of faith surrounding Google Wallet, which thus far is only available on a few NFC-enabled Sprint phones. TxVia’s management team, which includes CEO Anil D. Aggarwal, EVP Jonathan Weiner and COO Mike Blandina, are all moving over to Google, the company says.
This acquisition by Google is a big deal and shows that the company is committed to making Google Wallet a better product.