Live Payments
“Can a Macquarie Bank-spun merchant services provider become the full-stack payment and rewards platform for Australian SMBs and transport operators?”
Founded2006
HQSydney, New South Wales, Australia
IndustryVertical SaaS / Payments & Merchant Services
The story
Founded in 2006 by Macquarie Bank as a corporate taxi payments specialist, Live Payments was privatised in 2008 and restructured as Live group, broadening into general merchant services and EFTPOS. The company expanded its product suite to include the LiveCard Prepaid Visa Card, EFTPOS terminals, online payments, and a rewards programme tied to Qantas Points. The 2022 Visa Tap to Phone partnership signalled a push toward mobile acceptance alongside its traditional terminal business.
Product timeline
2006
Established by Macquarie Bank as Live Payments, offering corporate taxi payment solutions and an online reconciliation portal.· pivot
2007
Former Cabcharge Australia executive Ewaz Barukh appointed managing director.· pivot
2008
Privatised and restructured as Live group; acquired Live TaxiEpay in November 2008.· acquisition
2022
Partnered with Visa to launch a Tap to Phone service for Australian merchants.· card
Acquisitions
The stack
2 layers disclosed in Live Payments’s embedded-finance stack
Card network
Lending
in the full report
Accounting gap: none
2 more providers across 1 layer, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.