SECURE PAYMENT TECHNOLOGIES GMBH

Their core work

Secure Payment Technologies GmbH is an Austrian fintech SME that built Bluecode, a smartphone-based payment scheme designed as a pan-European alternative to card networks. Their core product uses mobile barcode/QR technology to enable payments directly from a customer's bank account at retail point-of-sale, bypassing card rails entirely. They went through the full EU SME Instrument cycle — feasibility study in 2018, then a Phase 2 development and market-deployment grant in 2019 — indicating a serious commercialization trajectory. Their work sits at the intersection of payment infrastructure, mobile UX, and European banking interoperability.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Both H2020 projects cover the same product — Bluecode — at different stages of maturity, so there is no meaningful thematic shift in subject matter. What changed is the project phase: a €50,000 SME-1 feasibility study in 2018 gave way to a €875,579 SME-2 development and commercialisation grant in 2019, which is exactly the progression the SME Instrument was designed to reward. The absence of keywords in the raw data prevents deeper topic-level analysis, but the funding trajectory is itself the story: they validated the concept, then scaled execution.

SPT completed the SME Instrument cycle with Bluecode and, if the product found commercial traction, likely moved beyond EU grant funding into private investment or partnership-driven expansion — making them a mature fintech product company rather than a research-stage entity.

How they like to work

SPT coordinated both projects themselves, with a minimal consortium of just one partner in one country — a profile typical of SME Instrument projects where the applicant company is the primary beneficiary and driver. They do not appear to be consortium builders or network hubs; they use EU funding as product-development capital rather than as a vehicle for collaborative research. Anyone approaching them should expect a commercial relationship rather than a co-development one.

SPT's H2020 network is minimal: one unique partner across one country, consistent with the solo-company focus of the SME Instrument programme. Their European ambitions are expressed through the product's market scope, not through consortium breadth.

What sets them apart

SPT is one of very few European SMEs that built a homegrown, bank-account-linked mobile payment scheme specifically designed for the European market — distinct from US-origin wallet products like Apple Pay or Google Pay. Their dual SME Instrument success (Phase 1 + Phase 2) signals that EU evaluators considered the business case credible and the team capable of execution. For consortium builders in payments, digital finance, or retail technology, they bring a live product and regulatory navigation experience in European payment law, not just a research prototype.

Highlights from their portfolio

• Bluecode (SME-2)
  The largest grant (€875,579) funded full commercial deployment of a pan-European smartphone payment scheme — rare for an Austrian SME to reach Phase 2 in financial infrastructure.
• Bluecode (SME-1)
  The Phase 1 feasibility study that validated the Bluecode business case and unlocked the larger Phase 2 award, demonstrating a clean two-stage EU funding strategy.