G&D gets into NFC

Giesecke & Devrient, one of the leading provider of trusted solution platforms (SIM cards but also secured bank notes, passports and probably more) has acquired a minority share of Venyon, a NFC startup launched by Nokia.

Venyon was set up in 2006 and has established itself a position as a trusted service manager (TSM) on the mobile near field communication (NFC) market.

NFC combines smart card and contactless technologies for secure mobile phone applications. As a TSM, Venyon provides trusted services to provision and manage applications such as credit cards or transit tickets securely over the mobile network on the user’s NFC-enabled mobile phone.

“This move to acquire full ownership of Venyon is another key milestone in G&D’s strategy. It will enable us to continue to expand our position as a provider of secure mobile phone solutions ” from SIM and secure microSD cards through software to the secure administration of critical applications on the mobile phone,” said Karsten Ottenberg, CEO of Giesecke & Devrient. “The market for NFC solutions is expected to develop steadily. Venyon has built up leading service expertise in the NFC ecosystem, which will also be useful to us in other business sectors.”

NFC has been very slow to get real in Europe, following what I call the QR-Code syndrome of too many parties involved (banks, mobile operators, service providers, hardware manufacturers) all wiling to get the biggest part of this potentially big cake – but at the end of the day there still is no cake to cut…