San Francisco, Calif.—Feb. 12, 2015—Kounta, a cloud point-of-sale platform that swept Australia, launched in the U.S., filling a gap in the North American business software market. Unlike other point-of-sale (POS) solutions, Kounta runs on any web-enabled device, and integrates seamlessly into hundreds of other products and services through an open application program interface (API). Kounta’s U.S. launch is challenging incumbents like Micros & NCR, and newer startups like Square and Revel POS.
Jason Seed, North America president of Kounta, said there were a few key reasons the U.S. market is now ready for his company’s launch: “We’re entering a busy market, but one that’s ripe for disruption. On the one hand, you have companies like Square and Groupon that entered the POS market and done quite well. However, they have ulterior motives to get you on to a specific payment provider or service, which they obviously earn money from.
“We see POS as the central business operating system for millions of American businesses. We don’t have a hidden motive to tie small business owners down to a certain payments provider. Instead, we built an open platform that integrates with everything else, so small business owners can choose the payments provider, or accounting software, or ordering applications , that suits them best.
“Similarly, the current crop of POS startups are too simplistic. They either tie you down to a specific operating system, or are beautiful, but lacking in deep features that small business owners need. We built an open POS platform that runs on iOS, Android, Windows or Mac; is easy to use on existing or future hardware; and is flexible from day one.
“What we’re hearing from small business entrepreneurs is that the second they become more successful, want to open more locations, or have a larger and more complex environment, their POS app is not scaling well with them. Kounta is an open platform that scales with its clients and that’s why we are here now. As an example, the ability to manage multiple sites is a core Kounta capability.
“Lastly, and most importantly, the legacy POS systems are becoming incredibly dated. There are 1.5 million POS machines running Windows XP in America. They’re vulnerable, slow and inefficient. We’re a true competitor to the legacy systems.”
Kounta opened its North American office in Silicon Valley, led by technology veteran Jason Seed. The reseller channel, which was largely ignored by POS incumbents, will be pleased to learn more about Kounta’s channel program, to be revealed soon.
