Samsung just made a major move in its bid for the company's own version of Apple Pay.
The South Korean-based company is acquiring the mobile payments platform and Apple Pay rival LoopPay, the two companies announced Wednesday.
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Terms of the deal, first rumored back in December, were not disclosed. In a statement, Samsung said LoopPay's two founders will join the company, although the status of the rest of LoopPay's team is unclear.
"Our vision of inspiring consumers to transition from a physical wallet to a truly digital wallet will continue," LoopPay CEO and cofounder WIll Graylin said in a statement. "We look forward to working with Samsung to offer the world’s most secure and compelling mobile platform."
Founded in 2012, LoopPay allows users to make mobile payments via their smartphones. But unlike Apple Pay, which uses near-field communications (NFC), the company uses magnetic secure transmission (MST), similar to the magnetic strip on traditional credit cards. Users store credit card information in a digital wallet via LoopPay's app (it's on iOS and Android), but transactions also require the company's $59.95 card case or $10 key fob, which enable the MST payments.
LoopPay has previously touted its platform as being better and more widely accepted than Apple Pay -- since it uses external hardware, it doesn't require merchants to adopt the same type of technology as Apple Pay -- although the necessity of extra hardware adds an extra, potentially awkward step, to transactions.