Tyfone Signs Strategic Distribution Partnership with Protege Sistemas in Brazil

PORTLAND, Ore. & BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tyfone (www.tyfone.com), a mobile financial and security solutions provider, today announced a partnership with Protege Sistemas of Brazil (operating under the name Rede Protege and in partnership with Quality Administradora & Investimentos) to bring the entire suite of Tyfone mobility solutions, including mobile banking, mobile wallet and mobile ticketing for mass transit with NFC to Brazil and Latin America.

“Our partnership with Protege Sistemas provides an excellent opportunity to help shape the mobile financial services ecosystem in Brazil and Latin America”

Protege Sistemas has been providing solutions in transport and automation of electronic transactions since 1987, processing millions of transactions every day. Protege Sistemas is also one of the few that dominate the issue of digital cards in Brazil and Latin America, distributing prepaid recharges for mobile and providing transaction processing service for São Paulo Metro with several hundred distribution points, and soon in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

“The landscape of the mobile world is rapidly changing and the ability to identify and adapt to the needs of consumers will lead Protege Sistemas to success in the near term,” said Pedro Lacerda, president of Quality Investimentos and chief relationship officer (CRO) of Rede Protege. “After an extensive search, we have chosen to partner with Tyfone because of their innovation, superior technology, implementation capability, patent portfolio and most of all, their experienced and knowledgeable staff. We anticipate tremendous success as we work with Tyfone to take these powerful mobile financial services to market and become a trusted mobile payments provider to the world of payments in Brazil and other markets in Latin America.”

“Our partnership with Protege Sistemas provides an excellent opportunity to help shape the mobile financial services ecosystem in Brazil and Latin America,” said Dr. Siva Narendra, CEO of Tyfone. “Expanding our partnerships to Brazil, especially in transit, is an important step in Tyfone’s global growth strategy. We look forward to working with the well established and highly seasoned team at Protege Sistemas to bring our full product line to market in Brazil and Latin America.”

Tyfone’s robust, carrier neutral and device independent, mobile financial solutions suite, branded iCashe™, includes: mobile banking; patented smartcard based identity management for mobile security; and mobile payments, with and without NFC. Protege Sistemas and Tyfone will start the Brazilian rollout under the iCashe brand, beginning with the following solutions:

Mobile Ticketing: Tyfone's SideTap™ form factors, including but not limited to microSD, are the only mobile secure element solutions that are carrier agnostic and device independent, with an integrated NFC antenna with memory capacities that consumers demand while providing contactless payment capabilities. With the latest Tyfone patented design innovation, the need for cumbersome external booster stickers or after-market battery covers are not needed. The next generation SideTap microSD, with optional accessories for devices without microSD slots, is ideal for mobile ticketing solutions for public transportation given its low cost, high performance and cross-device compatibility.
Mobile Banking: Tyfone’s next generation mobile banking solution, apart from standard features that consumers demand, will include bill payment, security analytics, mobile remote deposit capture (“mRDC”) and a host of other unique features, including the iCashe Mobile Wallet on all phones and tablets.

As the rollout continues, Tyfone and Protege Sistemas will together add support for additional services including debit, credit and loyalty transactions, secure ID management and contactless payments in-store. Beyond Tyfone's SideTap solution, the rollout will also include Tyfone’s SideSafe™ solution, which enables the extension of hardware security to cloud-based transactions on mobile devices, with a scalable platform that enables the deployment of identity management solutions seamlessly without control of device manufacturers or mobile network operators.

About Protege Sistemas
Founded in 1987, Protege Sistemas is a leading provider of solutions in transport and automation of electronic transactions, offering the most modern and secure multi-protocol communication net, with the best-in-class, cost-to-benefits ratio. Protege Sistemas, through Rede Protege brand, supports various services including TransX - a ticket charging platform for access to busses, trains and subway; and RechargeX - a mobile top-up service for recharging prepaid minutes. For more information visit http://www.redeprotege.com/english/

About Tyfone
Founded in 2004, Tyfone's corporate headquarters are in Portland, Oregon, USA and its research and development Asia-Pacific Headquarters are in Bangalore, India. Tyfone is a global innovator in mobility -- providing software, security and payment products. Tyfone and its partners enable a suite of services including mobile banking, smart card based mobile payments and mobile identity for use in-store with NFC and for use in the cloud without NFC. For more information visit www.tyfone.com.

Tyfone, iCashe, SideSafe, SideTap and u4ia are trademarks of Tyfone, Inc. All others names are the property of their respective owners.