Toro collaborates with Mobile World Capital to open new operation and R&D office in Barcelona, Spain
Taipei, Taiwan, 31, July, 2012 – The collaboration with Mobile World Capital will bring Toro to the center of the mobile innovation. The new office will be located in the Mobile World Hub in Barcelona, and directly serve the European market, also create international exchange opportunities for company employees. About TORO:
About Mobile World Capital and the Mobile World Hub:
The Mobile World Hub (MWHub) is the nerve centre of the Mobile World Capital (MWCapital), a unique physical B2B centre fully furnished to develop a comprehensive industrial program focused on the development of mobile solutions and various value-added industrial, research and standardization initiatives . Located in the city’s technological district, the MWHub aims to develop a new industrial sector based on mobile technologies capable of transforming daily life and company processes and has already attracted many big names to set up new offices in Barcelona, such as NXP, MasterCard and over 150 app companies. Toro is the first company to be fully committed to the Mobile World Hub program.
Toro is one of the leading NFC wallet platform providers in the world. Since the first NFC payment project in 2008 with ING bank, 2009 with Nice Ville NFC in France, and the NFC wallet of T-mobile with MasterCard which is to be launched this year in Poland, the company is receiving more and more requests from Europe. So far Toro's R&D and operation are based in Taipei with a team of international talents, the opening of Barcelona operation office is in respond to the fast-growing market of NFC, and it symbols Toro's commitment to be in the center of mobile innovation.
"We have chosen Barcelona out of other options e.g. Nice and Amsterdam to set up our European operation and R&D center because the MWHub program was an interesting offer for us, plus that one of the program focuses is mWallet, which is our core business. Meanwhile, joining the MWHub will keep Toro in contact with many other leading companies in the industry." said Laurent Renard, CEO of Toro.
Agustín Cordón, vicepresident of the Mobile World Capital’s Executive Committee, said that “Toro is undoubtedly one of the world’s leaders in NFC solutions and will play a decisive role in our mWallet program. They have extensive experience in the transformation of mobile devices into mobile wallets so we are very happy to have them onboard and are already looking forward to jointly develop new solutions in this field.”
Toro has already recruited a group of engineers in Spain and they will have training courses starting from August. The second R&D center will encourage the exchange and cultivation of inside resources between Asia and Europe, also improve the product development and European project delivery.
TORO Development Limited (TORO) is a “pure player” in the NFC space. The company strives to provide the best possible mobile user-experience corresponding to the NFC applications on the secure element of the phone, and on non-secure NFC applications (marketing, CRM, gaming, social network, etc.). For that matter, TORO has developed and continues developing a NFC mobile wallet platform (akami suite™) that enables the distribution of NFC applications. The TORO team has expert knowledge in smart card, mobile platforms, and mobile UI design. TORO is headquartered in Hong Kong, with R&D, S&M, and operations center in Taipei, Taiwan. Additionally TORO has offices in France, Spain and Turkey, to serve European markets.
The MWHub is the industrial heart of the MWCapital. A place offering every resource needed to meet the demands of both big and small companies such as designing, testing and marketing innovative mobile solutions; building cross-industry alliances to generate new ideas and projects; creating global technological standards and showcasing the future of mobile technologies to the world. The MWHub will have its own headquarters in the city’s technological district and will follow an industrial roadmap aimed to seize mobile technologies’ full potential within five key areas: mWallet, mHealth, mSmartcity, mContent and mTravel.
After 7 editions of the MWCongress in Barcelona and several before in Cannes, France, the GSM Association launched the MWCapital concept to create a permanent technological and cultural center to create new business opportunities and global awareness of the potential of mobile communications. Last July, Barcelona was chosen by GSMA to be Mobile World Capital from 2012 to 2018 over Paris, Milano and Munich.. The project is underpinned by four pillars: Mobile World Congress and Mobile World Hub, concerned mainly with industry and business, y Mobile World Centre and Mobile World Festival, focused on citizens and social activities.
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