France-based Inside Secure has acquired encryption and software security company Metaforic in a cash deal worth at least $11.6 million, which Inside Secure says will help equip it to offer security services for host-card emulation-based mobile payments.

Inside Secure sees the technology as important for its ability to sell security products for HCE, part of its shift in focus toward embedded security and away from NFC and contactless chips. The vendor, however, had few specifics on how the “obfuscation,” technology it is acquiring would work with full HCE solutions on the market, whether it would introduce its own HCE solution and how the technology would work with HCE specifications introduced or being drafted by Visa and MasterCard.

Inside, which provides both software-based and hardware-based transaction security, has shown strong interest in HCE and has sounded more positive about the technology than some other vendors in the market.