Card management solutions provider Unicard has acquired smart ticketing specialist Ecebs from Visa to offer a more comprehensive range of solutions in the UK and abroad. The move sees Unicard add contactless EMV to its portfolio, comprised of a Smart Ticketing platform, supporting both commercial and concessionary fare schemes, alongside its suite of ITSO, ABT (Account Based Ticketing), MaaS (Mobility-as-a-Service), and rail ticketing solutions.

Elevating its UK market presence and enabling multi-modal transport The contactless EMV solution allowing passengers to tap in and out using a payment card, will be accretive to Unicard’s capabilities. It enables the business to directly respond to needs of local authorities and transport operators and puts it at the centre of the rapidly growing smart mobility sector. The comprehensive range of solutions caters directly to the deployment of multi-operator, multi-token, multi-modal services across trains, buses, e-Scooters, and other forms of transport.

The expansion will augment Unicard’s position in the UK market for smartcard ticketing and concessionary travel. The company’s solutions have been adopted by over 70 local and Regional authorities in England and Scotland, including Transport for West Midlands (TfWM), Transport Scotland, Mersey Travel, and Solent Transport, as well as the provision of central back office for Rail Delivery Group. Unicard can now add Transport for Wales and Transport for London (TfL) to the list.

Driving future transport initiatives Unicard aims to work with new customer Nottingham City Council to help support its Future Transport Zone (FTZ) ambitions, where the city council could benefit from Unicard’s experience with the rollout of MaaS for TfWM’s Swift travel scheme, and the MaaS and rail accreditation elements of Solent Transport’s Breeze travel App, in line with the respective FTZ programme aspirations. Expresing their views on the acquisition, officials from Unicard said that Acquiring Ecebs has strengthened Unicard’s position in the smart travel market and significantly extends their capabilities and footprint. They’re committed to delivering accessible, inclusive, and integrated ticketing solutions for both their new and existing customers, while also helping them deliver new, innovative smart travel schemes.

Representatives from Ecebs said that Unicard is a business with shared interests and a similar culture. They’re confident that both companies’ customers can expect to see continuous innovation and the ongoing delivery of high-quality services, offering flexibility and experience for the travelling public. Unicard's collaboration with Visa and future offerings for customers Unicard has also signed a commercial agreement with Visa to use Cybersource, its global payments platform.

This gives the company an opportunity to offer its services across international borders. However, its immediate focus remains expanding its footprint in the UK. Moving forward, customers will benefit from Unicard’s secure ticketing, identity, payments, and data management capabilities to both companies’ customers.

These include its MaaS-ready ITSO HOPS suite, Smart Office cardholder and customer management solution, mobile apps, ITSO integration tools, and accredited Rail Suite middleware platform for retailing UK rail tickets. In addition, as a cloud-first provider, Unicard plans to migrate all of Ecebs’ on-premise infrastructure to the cloud to provide more scalable and, ultimately, more cost-effective services to its customers. .