POS SOLUTIONS
TCGplayer | July 12, 2022
TCGplayer, the leading technology platform for the collectibles industry and operator of the largest online marketplace for trading card games, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement under which TCGplayer will acquire ChannelFireball and BinderPOS, uniting the most iconic brands in the trading card game (TCG) industry.
Launched in 2009, ChannelFireball established itself as the premier content provider and events coordinator for the TCG industry, providing professional strategy advice to millions of TCG collectors, hobbyists, fans and players, and hosting large-scale competitive tournaments around the world. In 2020, ChannelFireball merged with BinderPOS — a leading inventory management and point-of-sale (POS) solution for hobby stores — to create CFB Group. Today, hundreds of retailers around the world rely on BinderPOS as an inventory management solution, which processes approximately $200 million of gross merchandise value (GMV) on an annual basis.
"Together with ChannelFireball and BinderPOS, we will deepen the connection between collectors and retailers via online and physical store channels, accelerating a strategy that has been front and center to us since our founding, For the first time ever, TCGplayer will provide a comprehensive POS solution that seamlessly connects a hobby store's inventory to the TCGplayer Marketplace while also enabling the sale of any collectible on their store's shelves — including comic books, sports cards and board games. As a combined entity, we will also merge the industry's best content with the world's largest marketplace for TCGs. By bringing together our world-class expertise, infrastructure and scale in this way, we expect to deliver value to our community in new and exciting ways. As a combined company, we will work together to advance TCGplayer's Purpose — connecting hobbyists to communities to relentlessly improve the exchange of things and thoughts that fuel their passions. This Purpose is core to both companies and critical to creating a shared organization with a common goal of empowering sellers and delighting hobbyists across the collectibles universe. We have long admired the ChannelFireball and BinderPOS team and look forward to welcoming this talented group of professionals to TCGplayer. I am confident that through this combination, we will create enhanced opportunities for team members, hobbyists, sellers and all our shared partners."
-Chedy Hampson, Founder and CEO of TCGplayer.
By combining with TCGplayer, ChannelFireball and BinderPOS will enhance our ability to serve the TCG community, joining a team with a shared vision, culture and complementary strengths, said Jon Saso, President of CFB Group. "The ChannelFireball and BinderPOS team should be incredibly proud of what we have accomplished and excited for the opportunities ahead of us as we join with TCGplayer. I look forward to working with the TCGplayer team as we bring our companies together.
This transaction marks an exciting milestone for ChannelFireball and BinderPOS, said Josh Grant, CEO of CFB Group. Joining forces with TCGplayer will position us to deepen our commitment to local game stores, expand the platform's reach, and create a larger and more diversified company with a shared TCG legacy. Together, we will have a larger and more meaningful impact on our community, and I look forward to seeing all that we accomplish as part of the TCGplayer team.
Under the terms of the agreement, TCGplayer will acquire CFB Group's BinderPOS, its ChannelFireball content arm, the ChannelFireball Marketplace and its ChannelFireball Events operating segment. The combination will deepen the value TCGplayer, ChannelFireball and BinderPOS will be able to offer hobbyists, retailers and collectors, allowing the combined company to unite and integrate its complementary features for the benefit of the collectibles industry. Additionally, the transaction will accelerate TCGplayer's vertical expansion strategy, taking the Company beyond its core trading card game business and into new hobby collectible categories like comic books and sports cards.
About CFB Group-
Launched in 2009, ChannelFireball established itself as the premier content provider and events coordinator for the TCG industry. The Company's content offering provides professional strategy advice to TCG collectors, hobbyists, fans and players while its ChannelFireball Events segment hosts dozens of large-scale competitive tournaments around the world. Following the creation of CFB Group in 2020, which brought together ChannelFireball and BinderPOS — the leading inventory management and point-of-sale (POS) solution for hobby stores — the Company launched the ChannelFireball Marketplace.
About TCGplayer-
TCGplayer is the leading technology platform for the collectibles industry. Founded as a digital media company specializing in trading card games within the collectibles space, TCGplayer has grown from its initial roots working with Syracuse-based hobby stores into an expansive ecommerce platform. The Company develops applications, data management tools and technologies like robotics automation that are revolutionizing the collectibles industry, connecting thousands of hobby stores and online sellers with customers and collectors around the globe. A purpose-driven company, TCGplayer prides itself on creating a culture that fosters camaraderie, embraces diversity and exudes passion. It has been ranked among New York State's 50 best employers, Fortune.com's top 100 companies for women in the U.S. and certified a Great Place to Work by its employees.
Read More
POS HARDWARE
Squirrel Systems | May 21, 2022
Squirrel Systems, a leading technology provider to the hospitality industry, announced the newest edition of the Squirrel Cloud POS at the National Restaurant Association tradeshow. Full service means all types of service today, and the Squirrel Cloud's Full-Service Restaurant edition was built to enable operators to better serve their guests at the table, bar, counter, curbside or via delivery – however the guest prefers.
Inside the restaurant, the Full-Service Restaurant edition adds all the table service capabilities busy restaurants need such as transfers across servers, tables, and departments, sharing of items and split payments. Coursing options allow the meal to be automatically or manually paced. More uniquely, Squirrel leaned on its pedigree in sophisticated table service environments to create unique ordering workflows for tableside ordering and upscale or fine-dining discreet, terminal based-ordering.
The Squirrel Cloud Full-Service Edition was honed based on feedback from the independent restaurants participating in the Squirrel Cloud Early Access program throughout 2021 and 2022. Squirrel's expertise in the enterprise full-service restaurant space also allowed for collaboration with innovative, long-time enterprise customers such as Wolfgang Puck.
The team at Wolfgang Puck brings large scale, fine dining insights to the product, helping to refine the Squirrel Cloud offering for sophisticated restaurants and demanding kitchens.
"Our team has been working closely with Squirrel to create a Cloud Point-of-Sale for the type of fine-dining restaurants we operate, We are looking forward to seeing our restaurants run on a modern, cloud-based Point-of-Sale platform built for enterprise restaurant customers."
-Michael Lubitz, CFO at Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining.
Filling out full-service restaurant needs is a curated list of newly integrated, best-of-breed partner solutions. Squirrel worked with Restaurant365, SevenRooms, Tacit Maegan and Eigen xDine online ordering to add their world-class products to the Squirrel Cloud ecosystem. Easy to use, secure, pay-at-the-table capabilities were added in conjunction with Squirrel's payment partners SHIFT4, Elavon and Eigen.
The Squirrel Cloud is a next-generation point-of-sale platform built in partnership with Microsoft on Microsoft Azure® cloud infrastructure. This partnership allows Squirrel to deliver enterprise-grade reliability to its customers while accelerating the pace of feature development. "Only ten months after releasing the first publicly available version of the Squirrel Cloud POS, Squirrel's Product and R&D teams have been able to deliver the functionality required to run discerning full-service restaurants," said Jason Leeson, President of Squirrel Systems. "This is the pace of innovation that a true, modern cloud point-of-sale platform delivers to our customers."
About Squirrel Systems
Squirrel Systems is a leading provider of point-of-sale solutions focused exclusively on the Hospitality market. Squirrel revolutionized the industry with the first touchscreen restaurant POS system and continues to introduce market-leading innovations to help shape the industry. Visit www.squirrelsystems.com/squirrel-story to learn why Squirrel only works with food and beverage operators to enable amazing guest experiences from table to curb.
Read More
POS SOLUTIONS
Sionic | July 13, 2022
Sionic , a leading provider of omni-commerce, consumer-to-business payments solutions, today announced it is launching a free mobile app for local merchants to accept real-time, bank-to-bank, lower-cost cash deposits from customers at the point of sale.
“We are excited to give local merchants a fast and easy way to accept real-time payments from customers, The app works with any point of sale and also gives merchants a simple way for customers to order and pay ahead for either in-store or takeout consumption.”
-Erica Burris, VP Strategy and Product for Sionic.
CODE Pay uses Sionic’s new Pay-by-Bank solution enabling real-time cash deposits for merchants at checkout while bypassing expensive card swipe fees. The mobile app and service helps local merchants combat inflation by offsetting rising labor and food or merchandise costs.
Sionic is also offering local merchants a bundled service for convenient processing of both bank and card payments with consolidated, instant reporting and analytics all from their mobile device using CODE Pay.
About Sionic-
Atlanta-based Sionic is leading The Great Reallocation in digital payments by delivering instant bank-to-bank transfers from consumers to merchants. A Google Cloud service, Sionic's market-first ULink™ is bringing real-time direct deposits to the point of sale via mobile, online, in store or in vehicle experiences. The company has partnered with top financial institution owners of The RTP Network for bank payments and CyberSource, a Visa solution, for secure card payment processing. Merchants accepting real-time payments bypass expensive card swipe fees and receive POS cash deposits immediately. Consumers may receive perks for paying with their bank accounts.
Read More
POS SOLUTIONS
XTM | August 12, 2022
XTM, Inc. (“XTM” or the “Company”) (QB: XTMIF / CSE:PAID / FSE:7XT), a Miami and Toronto-based Fintech company in the neo-banking space, providing mobile banking and payment solutions around the world, is pleased to announce the release of a Tip Pool and Tip Share software product that accepts data sets from any time and attendance or POS platform. This feature allows restaurant owners and operators to leverage our Tip Pool/Share without an integration and be operative within a few hours of sign-up.
The Tip Pool solution collects tips received by employees into a pool, and then automates the calculation and distributes on an organization-determined points basis to staff. The XTM Tip Share product automates the calculation and sharing of tips to other employees based on a percentage of net sales, saving operators time and money as well as providing staff with full transparency of the process.
“The technology-agnostic premise upon which our Tip Pool and Tip Share solutions pull data is a significant and strategic innovation for our Engineering team, It aligns with our product road-map to provide enterprise solutions for all hospitality businesses large and small, regardless of their current product stack.”
-Chad Arthur, CTO, XTM.
Proper Tip allocation is critical to operators and staff; if not done correctly it can be a highly litigious function within hospitality organizations, said Marilyn Schaffer, CEO, XTM. This product is a true reflection of our commitment to provide the hospitality industry with products and solutions to make their businesses more efficient and profitable.
About XTM:
XTM, is a Miami and Toronto-based fintech innovator in the neo-banking space, helping businesses and service workers in the hospitality and personal care space disseminate and access earned wages and gratuities. XTM's Today™ Solution, comprised of a free mobile app and a Visa or Mastercard debit card with free banking features, is used by thousands of restaurants, salons and staff across Canada and the United States. XTM is a global card issuer and real-time payment specialist. Our technology is used by Restaurants, Salons and service staff at no charge to automate and expedite Earned Wage and Gratuity Access, increasing time and attendance and eliminating cash from ecosystems. XTM's Today solution drives operational efficiencies and delivers a bespoke user experience designed specifically for service workers.
Read More