Two European payment startups Hips and Vourity join forces to enable crypto payment for 50,000 EV charging stations across Europe

Cryptocurrency continues to gain steam despite recent volatility in the price of bitcoin. Compared to a year ago, about 46 million Americans now own at least a share of Bitcoin — or about 17% of the adult population, according to estimates from a new study. The same phenomenon is going in Europe.

As crypto gains mainstream adoption so is the need to pay for services in cryptocurrency. One example is in the area of electric vehicle charging. Instead of using traditional credit cards, crypto users and mobile customers could simply make payments using bitcoin or other alternative cryptocurrencies commonly known as altcoins.

To make this dream a reality, Hips, a Dublin, Ireland-based provider of e-commerce payment solutions for merchants and shoppers, and Vourity, a Swedish SaaS platform for unattended Sales and Payments with one of the leading payment solutions for Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations in Europe, today announced they are joining forces to enable crypto payment for 50,000 EV charging stations across the European Union (EU).

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Halmstad, Sweden, Hips offers cost-effective e-commerce and mobile payment solutions. Hips is disrupting the finance industry with its Payment gateway for Point of Sale, e-commerce, and mobile-commerce, a fully integrated, digital financial commerce platform with full reconciliation and financing support.

Commenting on the partnership, Hips CEO John Cavebring said, “Allowing the use of crypto payments will make charging convenient for all EV drivers, which will accelerate the move to an all-electric vehicle future.”

Cavebring added, “We are really pleased to announce this partnership as we believe it is forward-thinking on many fronts; allowing the use of crypto payments will make charging convenient for all EV drivers, which will accelerate the move to an all-electric vehicle future.”

Currently, the Vourity platform enables EV drivers to pay for charging by using regular open payment methods such as credit cards (e.g., Visa and Mastercard), Apple Pay, Google Pay, Swish, and Bluecode. The partnership with Hips will expand customer payment processing options, promoting the use of cryptocurrency as a viable and accessible option.

Crypto payments will be fully integrated into the Vourity platform and can connect directly to the blockchain via Hips Merchant Protocol’s (HMP) native protocol token Merchant Token (MTO) starting November 2021. The rollout to 50,000 EV charging stations across the EU will be over 3 years.

“At Vourity, we are all about innovation and that starts with listening to EV drivers to understand and address their evolving needs. We want to make it easy for drivers to charge their car and offering an open platform that allows for crypto payments is the most logical choice for our next-generation world,” said Hans Nottehed, CEO of Vourity.

Vourity is a multinational fintech SaaS platform for Unattended (Self-service) Payments, Sales, and Delivery. By combining AI + Fintech + IoT Vourity enables companies to sell their products and services 24/7 in self-service physical cases such as Electric Vehicle Charging, Paid Access, and Unattended Retail. The company was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in Sweden.