Kounta, the cloud-based point of sale platform that has taken Australia by storm, has recently launched in the US, looking to fill what they see as a huge gap in the North American business software market.
Unlike other point of sale (POS) solutions, Kounta runs on any web-enabled device, and integrates seamlessly into hundreds of other products and services through an open API, making it an affordable, flexible, and powerful way to run and grow a small business.
Kounta’s US launch is challenging both the ageing incumbents like Micros and NCR and the newer start-ups like Square and Revel POS. Yep, big or small, no one is safe!
The start-up, which was founded by Nick Cloete, has opened its North American office in Silicon Valley, led by tech veteran Jason Seed, the North America President of Kounta.
Is the US ready for Kounta now?
Seed spoke in detail about why the US market is now ready for his company’s launch, stating, “We’re entering a busy market, but one that’s ripe for disruption.”
“On the one hand you have companies like Square and Groupon that have entered the POS market and done quite well. However, they have ulterior motives to get you on to a specific payment provider or service, which they obviously earn money from,” he pointed out.
“They are far from being open and this lock-in is dangerous for small business owners.”
Seed says Kounta’s approach is completely different.
“We see POS as the central business operating system for millions of American businesses. We don’t have a hidden motive to tie small business owners down to a certain payments provider.”
“Instead, we have built an open platform that integrates with everything else, so small business owners can choose the payments provider, or accounting software, or ordering applications, that suits them best,” he explained.
Ready to brush aside other POS start-ups in the US
Seed added that similarly, the current crop of point-of-sale start-ups are too simplistic.
“They either tie you down to a specific operating system, or are beautiful, but lacking in deep features that small business owners need.”
“We have built an open POS platform that runs on iOS, Android, Windows or Mac, is easy to use on existing or future hardware, incredibly flexible, and powerful from day one.”
Seed further pointed out that while these basic apps might work just fine for very simple businesses, what Kounta is hearing from small business entrepreneurs is that the second they become more successful, want to open more locations, or have a larger and more complex environment, their POS app is not scaling well with them.
“Kounta is a true open platform that scales with its clients, and that’s why we are here now. As an example, the ability to manage multiple sites is a core Kounta capability.”
Seed said lastly, and most importantly, the legacy POS systems in the US are becoming incredibly dated – and that’s Kounta’s huge opportunity.
“There are 1.5 million POS machines running Windows XP in America. They’re vulnerable, slow, and inefficient,” he stated.
“We’re a true competitor to the legacy systems, and we’re here to shake this market up.”
