iZettle

iZettle is a Swedish payments and point-of-sale company that democratized card acceptance for small merchants by putting payment processing into a smartphone. Founded in 2010, it transformed how independent retailers, restaurants, and service providers handle transactions—moving away from expensive terminal contracts toward plug-and-play hardware and mobile-first software.

The platform combines card readers with cloud-based POS management, inventory tracking, and basic analytics, all designed for merchants who don't have dedicated IT teams. iZettle handles the technical complexity of payment processing, compliance, and settlement, so business owners can focus on selling.

In the crowded European payments landscape, iZettle occupies an interesting middle ground: it's more accessible than enterprise POS systems, yet more comprehensive than simple payment processors. The company built real switching functionality for offline-first retail environments, recognizing that not all small shops have reliable wifi or want to depend entirely on cloud connectivity.

Acquired by PayPal in 2018 for $2.2 billion, iZettle has become a cornerstone of PayPal's SME push across Europe and beyond, proving that there's enormous value in making financial infrastructure genuinely frictionless for the people running independent businesses.