Egypt’s CVentures Invests in Contactless Soft PoS Platform MagicCube

Joining Bold Capital, Epic Ventures, Sony and more, CVentures, CIB’s corporate venture capital arm has just made an investment in the US-based MagicCube, a startup which created the first software-based trusted execution environment (TEE) platform, MagicCube. The contactless soft PoS platform can be integrated into vendors’ own software removing the need for specific hardware such as bank-issued credit card machines or archaic cash registers. 

MagicCube allows vendors’ devices to scan contactless-enabled credit cards, digital wallets and QR codes, proving especially important these days, where contactless innovations are proving almost necessary. This also allows vendors to forego the costs and hassle associated with single-function card acceptance devices.

“We are delighted to see VC firms of large acquiring banks like CIB supporting the new paradigm of mobile and IoT [Internet of Things] device security that we call Software Defined Trust (SDT),” share MagicCube co-founders Nancy Zayed and Sam Shawki. “As always, when software replaces hardware, everything becomes downloadable and upgradable, enabling the market to grow exponentially.” The platform has also announced a partnership with Egyptian FinTech company Areeba to kick off the contactless payment solution in the Middle East region.

MagicCube has already been granted the first-ever certification for a software-based TEE by EMVco, a consortium owned by Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, UnionPay and JCB. It was named by Network World magazine as one the “10  Hot IoT Startups to Watch” in 2019, and as a ‘Cool Vendor in Security and Risk Management’ by global research company Gartner, Inc.