US payments company Square has launched its solution in Ireland, marking its first launch inside the Eurozone.

The San Francisco based company, currently valued at around $100 billion, provides a point-of-sale (POS) solution which enables vendors to accept credit and debit cards and set up online stores.

Square was founded in 2009 by Twitter founder and chief executive Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey and currently has around 5,477 employees.

The news comes after the FinTech, which has been operational in the UK since 2017, was granted an electronic money license from the Central Bank of Ireland in 2020, allowing it to operate in the rest of Europe.

Participating Irish businesses will be subject to a 1.75 per cent charge for all card-present transactions.

“I know that a long-term goal for many in retail prior to the pandemic was to scale up online offerings to complement their physical stores,” said Damien English, minister for business, employment and retail. “This goal has been accelerated due to the pandemic and many have now adopted new digital transformative models to ensure the strong relationships they have built with their customers can continue into the future.”

“I want to see the retail sector develop and become one of our most innovative and resilient sectors in Ireland.”

He said: “It is the largest private sector employer in the country, and supports jobs in every city, town and village.”

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