Leaf, creators of the world’s first tablet specifically designed for commerce, today unveiled an open approach to payment acceptance, giving small businesses the freedom to work with the payment provider of their choice, as well as the ability to accept new forms of payment such as LevelUp, all from one device.

In the highly fragmented payments industry, traditional payment processing companies offer complicated rate plans and construct rigid barriers to change, while newcomers aggregate payments, loyalty and customer acquisition. As a result, merchants who want to take advantage of novel methods of payment and customer interaction are left with the task of managing solutions pieced together from multiple sources. By becoming the first point of sale platform that is truly committed to the principle of open payment acceptance, Leaf empowers merchants to choose their providers and rate plans, offer the most novel and convenient payment options for their customers, and aggregate data analytics over all payment types and providers.

“The barriers to adopting next generation payment and loyalty solutions are not for lack of innovation – there are many pioneering minds in the startup and traditional community with exciting approaches,” said Leaf CEO Aron Schwarzkopf. “The real challenge in adoption occurs because it’s not easy enough for merchants to discover and implement new approaches. The open nature of Leaf’s platform removes the barriers and provides and easy solution for both merchants and payment providers.”

Starting today, Leaf enables merchants to choose from a list of more than two dozen credit card, gift card and next generation payment providers within its partner program, which it plans to grow in the coming months. Merchants that maintain existing accounts with payment processors need to simply provide account information to Leaf in order to begin processing payments on the LeafPresenter™, Leaf’s built-for-business tablet. With its open approach to payment acceptance, Leaf empowers small business owners to make informed choices about their payment providers and even offers the ability to create new accounts with pre-approved partners through its online analytics and management portal, LeafBusiness™. Similarly, merchants who choose to accept supported mobile wallet payments can easily link their credentials within the LeafBusiness portal.

“Leaf has become the epicenter of our business, offering an easy, out-of-the-box way to securely accept payments no matter how customers want to pay. Accepting payments has never been so easy, cost-effective or efficient,” said Alberto Cabre, Chef/Owner at Casa B restaurant in Somerville, Mass. “The ability to select a payment processor is the type of flexibility small businesses really need when considering a point of sale system. We have worked with Heartland Payment Systems for a while and love their service, so we were excited to be able to use Leaf with our existing Heartland account.”

Leaf’s combination of an open approach to payments and an open platform for point-of-sale enables it to extend support to all mobile wallets whether they operate on QR code, geolocation, Near Field Communication (NFC) or Europay Mastercard Visa (EMV) contact and contactless payments. These capabilities enable Leaf merchants to keep pace in the quickly innovating world of mobile payments at no additional cost to their businesses.

Additional payment providers unveiled today within Leaf’s partner program include:

About Leaf

Leaf empowers local merchants to run and grow their businesses by providing a mobile payment platform built for local commerce. Leaf’s cost-effective platform helps retail stores, restaurants, and other local merchants improve the speed and ease of checkout and offers easy-to-use business management, analytics, and customer engagement. By making the complex tasks of running a business easy, Leaf allows merchants to spend more time focusing on what’s important – the needs of their customers. For more information on how Leaf is transforming Point of Sale into Point of Smart, visit http://www.leaf.me.