Visa, a US-based payment card provider, has provided an undisclosed amount to Square, a mobile phone credit card reader.
The strategic corporate venturing investment came 12 months after Visa linked up with DeviceFidelity to launch its version, In2Pay, of Square’s service.
Visa has been moving into online and virtual payments after buying PlaySpan for $190m in February.
In January, news provider TechCrunch said Square was preparing to raise a round at more than $200m and potentially bring in a strategic investor.
Subsequently, venture capital firms Sequoia and Khosla Venture backed a $27.5m round at a $240m reported valuation.
And news provider PEHub said Square was adding an executive from bank JP Morgan Chase as an adviser after the bank participated in Square’s series B round.
At the start of the year, JP Morgan was reportedly buying a 10% stake in social messaging service Twitter for an enterprise valuation of about $4bn from its $1.2bn Digital Growth corporate venturing fund.
Twitter co-founder and executive chairman Jack Dorsey also founded Square.