SEATTLE – Amazon may be expanding into mobile payments, Tech Crunch reports, citing Italian newspapers that report the online giant has acquired GoPago, a startup that offers a mobile app to prepay for goods and a POS system for retailers to process those orders.

GoPago co-founder Vincenzo di Nicola has spoken to the Italian press about the deal, acknowledging that Google also expressed interest in the company.

Di Nicola said Amazon was primarily interested in GoPago’s technology, which will be at the heart of an “ambitious” project.

As to that “ambitious” project, Tech Crunch speculated that Amazon could be working on a product to compete with Square. It also said that Amazon is looking to launch a smartphone of its own and that GoPago could possibly integrate with that as well as its Kindle Fire tablets to initiate payments.

Read more about Amazon’s foothold in the marketplace in NACS Magazine.