Mobile payments wunderkind Square hits 1M merchant milestone

Mobile payments startup Square now has more than 1 million merchants charging credit cards with the service, the company announced today.

“Just as small businesses are growing with Square, we’re growing with them: Over 1 million merchants now accept credit cards via Square,” the company said on Twitter.

Square is one of a handful of companies, along with names like PayPal, Google and Intuit, that are quickly transforming the mobile payments landscape. The company’s service has seen huge growth since its debut in late 2009. At last check, the company was signing up between 30,000 and 50,000 new merchants each month, so it’s no wonder Square finally hit the 1 million merchant mark.

One of the latest ways Square, which is led by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, is evolving is with its Card Case app for iOS 5. The app allows for hands-free payments to merchants that use Square. Ideally, as more small businesses accept Square, more users will adopt the Card Case application to speed up the payment process.

During the next few years, Square will be heavily competing with Google Wallet, Isis, Sequent, and other NFC-related services that will be directly connected to smartphones. But having a clear 1-million-merchant head start will certainly give Square an edge.

San Francisco-based Square’s funding now totals $137.5 million. It last raised $100 million in a third round of funding led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, with the company’s valuation at more than $1 billion.